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MOUNT  VERNON 


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*** 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
AT  LOS  ANGELES 


MOUNT  VERNON 


MOUNT  VERNON 

WASHINGTON'S  HOME  and 
THE  NATION'S  SHRINE 


BYv 
PAUL  WILSTACH 

Author  of  "Richard  Mansfield,  the  Man  and  the  Actor,"  etc. 


ILLUSTRATED 


GARDEN   CITY  NEW  YORK 

DOUBLEDAY,  PAGE  &  COMPANY 
1916 


Copyright,  1916,  by 

DOUBLEDAY,  PAGE  &  COMPANY 

All  rights  reserved,  including  thai  of 

translation  into  foreign  languages, 

including  the  Scandinavian 


'i 


3 


A 

KV 


To 
HARRISON  HOWELL  DODGE 


186466 


MOUNT  VERNON 

No  estate  in  United  America  is  more  pleasantly  situated  than 
this.  It  lies  in  a  high,  dry,  and  healthy  country,  300  miles  by  watei 
from  the  sea,  and  on  one  of  the  finest  rivers  in  the  world.  Its 
margin  is  washed  by  more  than  ten  miles  of  tide  water.  ...  It 
is  situated  in  a  latitude  between  the  extremes  of  heat  and  cold,  and 
is  the  same  distance  by  land  and  water  .  .  .  from  the  Federal 
City,  Alexandria,  and  Georgetown;  distant  from  the  first,  twelve, 
from  the  second,  nine,  and  from  the  last  sixteen  miles.— George 
Washington. 

From  beneath  that- humble  roof  went  forth  the  intrepid  and  un- 
selfish warrior — the  magistrate  who  knew  no  glory  but  his  country's 
good;  to  that  he  returned  happiest  when  his  work  was  done.  There 
he  lived  in  noble  simplicity;  there  he  died  in  glory  and  peace. 
While  it  stands  the  latest  generations  of  the  grateful  children  of 
America  will  make  this  pilgrimage  to  it  as  to  a  shrine,  and  when  it 
shall  fall,  if  fall  it  must,  the  memory  and  name  of  Washington  shall 
shed  an  eternal  glory  on  the  spot. — Edward  Everett. 

Everything,  every  subject,  every  corner  and  step,  seems  to  bring 
him  close.  .  .  .  It  is  an  exquisite  and  friendly  serenity  which 
bathes  one's  sense  .  .  .  that  seems  to  be  charged  all  through 
with  some  meaning  or  message  of  beneficence  and  reassurance  but 
nothing  that  could  be  put  in  words.  .  .  .  You  may  spend  an 
hour,  you  may  spend  a  day,  wandering,  sitting,  feeling  the  gentle 
power  of  the  place;  you  may  come  back  another  time,  it  meets  you, 
you  cannot  dispel  it  by  familiarity.  .  .  .  And  as  you  think  of  this 
you  bless  the  devotion  of  those  whose  piety  and  care  treasure  the 
place  and  keep  it  sacred  and  beautiful. — Owen  Wister. 


VJl 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  I 

Mount  Vernon's  Beginnings — The  Doeg  Indians — John  Smith's 
Account  of  the  Upper  Tidewater  Potomac — Leonard  Calvert  at 
Piscataway — Early  Royal  Grants  of  the  Northern  Neck — The 
English  Washingtons — First  Washingtons  in  Virginia — Wash- 
ingtons  and  Fairfaxes  Move  Up  the  Potomac — Title  to  Hunting 
Creek  Tract — The  First  Dwelling — The  Fire — Lawrence  Wash- 
ington ..........  3 

CHAPTER  II 

What  Lawrence  Found  on  His  Tract — Pioneer  Buildings — 
Abandons  His  Estate  for  Military  Service  in  the  West  Indies  Under 
Admiral  Vernon — Returns  and  Marries  Anne  Fairfax — Career  of 
Lawrence  Washington — Arrival  of  George  to  Make  His  Home  at 
Mount  Vernon — Parson  Weems — Influences  on  George's  Young 
Character  at  Mount  Vernon  and  at  Belvoir — The  Original  House 
—Who  Built  It?— The  Cornerstone.  ....  15 

CHAPTER  III 

Lawrence  Plans  George's  Career — Letter  of  Uncle  Joseph  Ball 
— Fox  Hunting  with  Lord  Fairfax — Absent  Surveying  in  the  Valley 
— Sentimental  Manifestations — Military  Tutors  at  Mount  Ver- 
non— Lawrence  111 — Lawrence  and  George  Sail  for  Barbadoes — 
Return  and  Death  and  Will  of  Lawrence — George  Master  of  Mount 
Vernon  ..........  26 

CHAPTER  IV 

Absences  from  Home — Military  Expeditions  to  the  Ohio — Mary 
Washington's  Last  Visit  to  Mount  Vernon — Organizing  the  House- 
hold— Political  Aspirations — John  Augustine  Washington  the  First 
Manager — Off  to  the  West  with  Braddock — Military  Career  Un- 
remunerative — Home  with  Extended  Fame,  General  Braddock's 
Battle  Charger  and  Bishop — Women  WTho  Might  Have  Been  Mis- 


x  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

tress  of  Mount  Vernon — Washington  Made  Commander  of  All 
Virginia  Troops — A  Winter's  Illness  at  Mount  Vernon,  Not 
Without  Compensation  .......  37 

CHAPTER  V 

A  Chapter  Wholly  Away  from  Mount  Vernon — Most  Significant 
to  Its  History — Bishop's  Vigil — Dinner  at  Mr.  Chamberlayne's 
— Martha  Dandridge  Custis — Her  Family — Early  Life — George 
Washington  and  Martha  Custis  Betrothed — Off  to  the  West — 
Letters — Restoring  Mount  Vernon  in  Its  Master's  Absence — 
The  Wedding — Honeymoon  at  the  Six-chimney  House  in  Wil- 
liamsburg — Washington  in  the  House  of  Burgesses — Bringing 
the  Bride  to  Mount  Vernon — Curiosity  of  the  Neighbors  and 
Retainers — The  Arrival — Martha  Washington  Mistress  of  Mount 
Vernon  .  50 


CHAPTER  VI 

Settling  in  Mount  Vernon — Development  of  the  Domestic 
Life  on  the  Plantation — Martha  Washington  as  a  Housekeeper — 
Mount  Vernon  Grows  into  a  Village — The  Spinning  House — The 
Laundry — The  Dairy — The  Smoke  House — The  Kitchen — Shop- 
ping in  London  by  Way  of  the  Tobacco  Ships — Washington's 
Taste — Daily  Routine — The  Beginnings  of  Sixteen  Years  of  Home 
Life  and  the  Upbuilding  of  the  Estate  ....  65 

CHAPTER  VII 

Washington  as  a  Planter — Extending  the  Boundaries  of  the 
Estate — The  Five  Farms — Farm  Organization — Virginia  Methods 
— Agricultural  Experiments — Horses  and  Cattle — The  Old  Mill — 
The  Distillery — The  Ovens — Fish  and  Fishing — Charity — Making 
Ends  Meet  .  .  .  .  .  ....  76 

CHAPTER  VIII 

Social  Life — Processions  of  Guests — Dinner  Parties — English 
Naval  Officers — Neighborhood  Life — The  Mansions  on  Both 
Sides  of  the  Potomac — To  Annapolis  for  the  Races — Captain 
John  Posey's  Letter — Alexandria  Associations — The  Bread  and 
Butter  Ball — Fox  Hunting — Nearby  Race  Tracks — Lotteries — 
Duelling — Mrs.  Washington's  Children,  John  and  Martha  Custis 
— Dancing  Classes  .  .  •  .  .  .  .89 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS  xi 

CHAPTER  IX 

Washington  in  Colonial  Public  Life — Vestryman  of  Truro 
Parish — Drawing  the  Parish  Lines  to  Capture  Mount  Vernon — 
Attendance  at  Pohick  Church — As  a  Churchman — As  Burgess  in 
the  Assembly  at  Williamsburg — Trips  Between  Mount  Vernon 
and  the  Capital — Late  Summers  at  Bath  Springs — A  Trip  to  New 
York— Charles  Willson  Peale— The  First  Portrait  .  .  104 

CHAPTER  X 

Last  Years  Before  the  Revolution — Changes  in  the  Family  and 
in  the  Neighborhood — Death  of  Martha  Custis — The  Fairfaxes 
Leave  for  England — Sale  at  Belvoir — Jack  Custis  Marries  Eleanor 
Calvert — Courtly  Letters — Mount  Vernon  Adapts  Itself  to  the 
Stamp  Act — The  Fairfax  Resolves — Notable  Conferences  at 
Mount  Vernon — Preparing  to  Enlarge  the  House — Eccentric 
Charles  Lee — Preparations  for  the  Impending  Struggle — The 
Eyes  of  the  Colonies  on  Mount  Vernon — The  Richmond  Conven- 
tion— To  the  Congress  in  Philadelphia — Commander-in-Chief  of 
the  Army  .........  116 

CHAPTER  XI 

Mount  Vernon  During  the  Devolution — Mrs.  Washington's 
Absences  in  Camp — Lund  Washington  in  Charge  of  the  Estate — 
The  Door  of  Hospitality  Kept  Open  by  the  Absent  Master — Postal 
Facilities — British  on  the  Potomac — Designs  on  Mount  Vernon — 
Mrs.  Washington  Flees  for  a  Night — Tarlton's  Raiders — Lund 
Propitiates  the  British — The  General's  Rebuke — Building  Oper- 
ations— The  Northeast  and  Southwest  Additions  Completed — 
Outbuildings  Built  and  Rebuilt — The  Portico — Belvoir  Burned 
—The  General's  Brief  Visit  After  Six  Years'  Absence — Death  of 
John  Parke  Custis — Washington  Adopts  Two  of  His  Children — 
Two  Years  Later  Resigns  Commission  and  Returns  Home  and  to 
Private  Life 132 

CHAPTER  XII 

Washington's  Delight  to  Be  at  Mount  Vernon  Again — Letters 
— To  Fredericksburg,  Philadelphia,  and  the  Ohio  Country — Putting 
a  Finish  on  Grounds  and  Buildings — The  Bowling  Green  and  the 
Serpentine  Drive — Trees — The  Deer  Park — Gardens — Walls — 
Barns — Fences — A  Toper's  Contract — The  General's  Warhorse- 


xii  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

Nelson — Mrs.  Washington's  Grandchildren — His  Nephews  and 
Nieces — First  Wedding  in  the  Mansion — Dreaming  a  Deed  from 
the  General — Shiftless  Harriott  .....  145 

CHAPTER  Xm 

Burdens  of  Greatness — Secretaries  in  the  Home — David  Hum- 
phries and  William  Smith — Anecdote  of  Old  Bishop  and  His 
Daughter — Gideon  Snow — William  Shaw — Tobias  Lear — New 
Associations  with  Alexandria — Visitors'.  Descriptions  of  Life  at 
Mount  Vernon — Sitting  for  the  Portrait  Painters — Arrival  of 
Houdon — He  Models  the  Bust — LaFayette's  Visit — Gifts  from 
Abroad — French  Hounds — The  Vaughan  Mantel — Mules  from 
Malta — Asses  from  the  King  of  Spain  .  .  .  .160 

CHAPTER  XIV 

Mount  Vernon  the  Cradle  of  Constitutional  Agitation — Union 
of  States  First  Effected  at  Mount  Vernon  Conference — Off 
to  the  Constitutional  Convention — Washington's  Passion  for 
the  Constitution — Virginia  in  a  Turmoil — Ratification — Dreading 
the  Interruption  of  His  Home  LifeyElected  First  President  of 
the  United  States — The  Formal  Notification  at  Mount  Vernon — 
Breaking  Home  Ties — End  of  His  Furlough — Departure  for  the 
Inauguration  ........  177 

CHAPTER  XV 

Mount  Vernon  During  the  Presidency — Visits  Home — Arrival 
of  the  Key  of  the  Bastille— Mode  of  Travel— The  Hard  Riding 
Aide  and  the  General's  Anger — Directions  for  Hospitality  at 
Mount  Vernon  in  His  Absence — Managers  of  the  Estate:  George 
Augustine  Washington,  Anthony  Whiting,  Howell  Lewis,  William 
Pearce  and  James  Anderson — Keeping  in  Touch  with  His  Estate 
when  Absent — New  Barns — Mrs.  Washington  Homesick  in  Phil- 
adelphia— The  General's  Love  for  His  Home — Retires  from  Public 
Life — Returns  to  Mount  Vernon  .  186 


CHAPTER  XVI 

Planter  Once  More — Repairing  the  Neglect  of  Years  of  Absence 
— Refurnishing  the  Mansion — Joking  About  Death — Renewed 
Social  Gayety — A  Letter  to  Mrs.  Fairfax — George  Washington 
LaFayette — Distinguished  Visitors — Bushrod  Washington  and 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS  xiii 

John  Marshall  Bring  a  Peddler's  Pack — General  Henry  Lee  and 
His  Liberties — The  Polish  Gentleman's  Visit — Washington's  Own 
Account  of  How  He  Spent  His  Time.  ....  201 

CHAPTER  XVII 

The  Year  1799 — Washington's  Fortieth  Wedding  Anniversary 
— Two  Birthday  Celebrations — Wedding  of  Nellie  Custis  and 
Lawrence  Lewis — A  Gay  Summer — First  Dinner  Alone  with  Mrs. 
Washington  in  Twenty  Years — Bankruptcy  by  Hospitality — 
Mount  Vernon  Washington's  Consuming  Interest — A  Luxury — 
The  Rickety  Stairway  at  the  Polls — A  Birth  in  the  Mansion — 
Washington  Survives  His  Sister  and  All  His  Brothers — Last  Dinner 
Parties  at  Mount  Eagle  and  Mount  Vernon — Caught  in  a  Storm 
— Last  Illness — Death — Funeral  .....  216 

CHAPTER  XVIII 

Death  Chamber  Sealed — Washington's  Will — Mount  Vernon 
Bequeathed  to  Bushrod  Washington — Other  Bequests — The 
Inventory — The  Slave  Problem — Martha  Washington's  Last 
Days — Death — Family  Matters — Pictures,  Plate,  Furnishings, 
and  Souvenirs  Dispersed — Sale  of  1802 — Bushrod  Washington 
Takes  Possession  of  Mount  Vernon  ....  225 

CHAPTER  XIX 

Career  of  Bushrod  Washington — Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States — Estimates  by  Contemporaries — Mount 
Vernon  and  the  English  Fleet  in  1814— Battle  off  Belvoir— Rev- 
erend Charles  O'Neill — Return  of  LaFayette — Death  of  Justice 
Washington — The  Two  John  Augustine  Washingtons — New 
Tomb — Reentombment  of  the  General  and  Mrs.  Washington — 
Other  Burials — The  Key  Thrown  into  the  Potomac  .  .  240 

CHAPTER  XX 

Mount  Vernon  Lands  Diminish — Burden  of  a  National  Shrine 
— Neglect  and  Decay — Speculators — Vain  Appeal  for  Govern- 
ment Purchase — Ann  Pamela  Cunningham  Organizes  the  Mount 
Vernon  Ladies'  Association  of  the  Union — Contract  for  Purchase 
— Campaign  for  Funds — Edward  Everett's  Work — Possession 
Given — Restoration  Begun — During  the  War — Regents,  Super- 
intendents, and  Other  Officials  .....  254 


xiv  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  XXI 

Remaking  the  Home  of  George  Washington — The  Summer 
House— The  Old  Tomb— Deer  Park— Gifts  of  Protective  Lands 
— North  Lodge  Gates — Sea  Wall — Garden,  Screen,  and  Ha-Ha 
Walls — A  Colonial  Ruin  Bought  to  Get  Colonial  Brick — Tunnelling 
to  Prevent  Mount  Vernon  from  Slipping — Earliest  Shingles  Still 
Shelter  the  Mansion — Flagging  from  St.  Bees — Precautions  Extraor- 
dinary— If  Mount  Vernon  Were  Destroyed — Historic  Relics — 
When  Naval  Vessels  Pass  the  Tomb  of  the  Father  of  His  Country 
—A  Symbol— The  End  .  .  .  .  .  .264 

APPENDIX 

A 

The  Title  to  Mount  Vernon 281 

B 

Table  of  General  Washington's  Visits  to  Mount  Vernon  While 
President 283 

C 

Tables  of  Those  Born,  Married,  and  Buried  at  Mount  Vernon  284 

D 

Regents  and  Vice-Regents  of  the  Mount  Vernon  Ladies'  Asso- 
ciation of  the  Union,  Since  Its  Organization  .  .  .  .  287 

INDEX  293 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Mount  Vernon  Mansion Frontispiece 

FACING 
PACK 

Lawrence  Washington 16 

Admiral  Vernon 20 

The  Old  Brick  Barn 22 

The  Corner  Stone  of  Mount  Vernon 26 

Survey  of  Mount  Vernon 28 

The  Ruins  of  the  Old  Tomb 32 

The  Old  Tomb 32 

George  Washington  in  the  Uniform  of  a  Virginia  Colonel       .  52 

Mrs.  George  Washington 60 

The  South  Lane 66 

The  Kitchen  Fireplace 68 

The  North  Lane 76 

A  Map  of  General  Washington's  Farm 78 

A  Lane  Below  the  Old  Brick  Barn 84 

The  West  Lodge  Gates 92 

The  River  Shore 92 

The  West  Parlor        . 96 

The  Family  Dining  Room 96 

The  Music  Room 98 

The  Sitting  Room 98 

Pohick  Church 110 

North  and  South  Lanes 112 

The  Floor  Plans  of  Mount  Vernon 128 

The  Great  Window  in  the  Banquet  Hall 132 

The  North  Colonnade 140 

The  Central  Hall  or  Passage 144 

A  Vista  Through  the  Portico 148 


xvi  LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGE 


*Samuel  Vaughan's  Plan  of  Mount  Vernon 150 

Box  Maze  and  Greenhouses 152 

The  Walled  Vegetable  Garden 154 

The  Family  at  Mount  Vernon 156 

West  Front  of  Mount  Vernon  Mansion 162 

The  School  House .' 164 

Houdon's  Bust  of  George  Washington 172 

The  Banquet  Room 174 

The  Library 180 

Facsimile  of  a  Letter  from  George  Washington    ....  188 

Mount  Vernon  Mansion 192 

The  Mansion  and  Some  of  the  Small  Buildings  ....  208 

Eleanor  ("Nellie")  Parke  Custis 212 

George  Washington's  Bedroom 220 

Martha  Washington's  Bedroom 228 

John  Augustine  Washington 236 

Bushrod  Washington 236 

Jane  Washington  and  Members  of  Her  Family  ....  246 

George  Washington's  Tomb 250 

Ann  Pamela  Cunningham 256 

Mount  Vernon  Mansion  as  It  Appeared  Just  Before  the  Civil 

War 262 

The  South  Ha-Ha  Wall 266 

A  Section  of  the  Lichen  Covered  Garden  Wall    ....  272 

Skeleton  Model  of  Mount  Vernon  Mansion  .  276 


*Washington  in  a  letter  to  Samuel  Vaughan,  dated  12th  November,  1787,  said: 
"The  letter  without  date,  with  which  you  were  pleased  to  honor  me,  accompanied 
by  a  plan  of  this  seat,  came  to  my  hands  by  the  last  post.  .  .  .  The  plan 
describes  with  accuracy  the  houses,  walks,  and  shrubs,  except  in  the  front  of  the 
lawn,  west  of  the  courtyard.  There  the  plan  differs  from  the  original.  In  the 
former  you  have  closed  the  prospect  with  trees  along  the  walk  to  the  gate;  whereas 
in  the  latter  the  trees  terminate  with  two  mounds  of  earth,  one  on  each  side,  on 
which  grow  weeping  willows,  leaving  an  open  and  full  view  of  the  distant  woods. 
The  mounds  are  sixty  yards  apart.  I  mention  this,  because  it  is  the  only  de- 
parture from  the  original." 


INTRODUCTION 

To  Dr.  Johnson  has  been  attributed  the  epigram, 
"The  most  difficult  thing  in  the  world,  sir,  is  to 
get  possession  of  a  fact";  and  to  few  perhaps  does 
this  come  home  with  more  force  than  to  those  who  un- 
dertake to  extract  the  truth  from  the  traditions  and 
glamour  of  romance  that  have  grown  around  so  much  of 
the  life  and  customs  of  Colonial  America.  The  gratifi- 
cation, perhaps  the  pride,  engendered  by  the  accounts 
that  have  come  down  to  us  of  the  imposing  dignity  of 
the  lives  of  our  Colonial  ancestors  and  the  elegance  of 
their  homes  has  sometimes  received  a  rude  shock  as  we 
have  gazed  for  the  first  time  on  the  "Mansions**  in 
which  they  lived;  and  while,  on  the  one  hand,  this  is 
true;  on  the  other,  it  is  equally  true  that  some  of  those 
old  worthies  whose  names  are  scarce  remembered,  and 
who  may  perhaps  "have  sealed  their  letters  with  their 
thumbs,"  are  shown  by  careful  research  to  have  pos- 
sessed homes  as  stately  as  any,  and  to  have  contributed 
as  prodigally  to  Virginia's  reputation  for  hospitality 
and  heroism  as  did  those  whose  names  have  gone  sound- 
ing down  the  ages;  and  as  it  is  the  task  of  the  faithful 
historian  to  make  "  history  as  written  accord  with  his- 
tory as  performed,"  so  in  the  field  he  has  chosen  to 
occupy,  this  is  what  Mr.  Wilstach  has  endeavored  to 
accomplish,  and  I  believe  he  has  achieved  it. 

Much  of  what,  in  the  past,  has  been  said  and  written 


INTRODUCTION 

about  Mount  Vernon  has  been  based  on  tradition,  and 
while  Mr.  Wilstach's  careful  investigation  has  confirmed 
many  of  these  traditions,  some  of  what  has  been  believed 
has  been  found  not  entirely  accurate,  and  his  patient 
research  has  brought  to  light  much  that  was  not  known. 
It  was  not  an  easy  task,  and  those  who  feel  an  abiding 
interest  in  the  home  of  the  Father  of  his  Country,  and 
who  appreciate  faithful  endeavor,  will  recognize  the 
debt  due  the  author  for  his  patient  labor  of  love. 


MOUNT  VERNON 


CHAPTER  I 

Mount  Vernon's  Beginnings — The  Doeg  Indians — John  Smith's 
Account  of  the  Upper  Tidewater  Potomac — Leonard  Cal- 
vert  at  Piscataway — Early  Royal  Grants  of  the  Northern 
Neck— The  English  Washingtons — First  Washingtons  in 
Virginia — Washingtons  and  Fairfaxes  Move  Up  the  Potomac 
—Title  to  Hunting  Creek  Tract— The  First  Dwelling— The 
Fire — Lawrence  Washington. 

MOUNT  VERNON,  the  home  and  last  resting 
place  of  George  Washington,  is  situated  on 
the  Virginia  shore  of  the  Potomac  River,  in 
Fairfax  County,  fourteen  miles  south  of  the  Capital  of 
the  United  States. 

Its  wide  fame,  the  deep  affection  in  which  it  is  held, 
and  the  familiarity  given  it  by  written  and  painted 
history,  make  it  difficult  for  the  mind  to  erase  the 
picture  of  Washington's  home  and  think  of  its  parked 
heights  as  virgin  forest  overlooking  a  sailless,  undis- 
covered river.  Yet  less  than  one  hundred  and  fifty 
years  before  it  came  into  his  hands,  so  far  as  is  positively 
known,  white  man  had  never  seen  it. 

In  Mount  Vernon's  early  history  events  punctuated 
long  series  of  years.  The  first  title  holders  to  these  hills 
and  meadows  were  the  Doeg  Indians,  a  tribe  of  the 
Algonquin  race.  Their  remains  have  been  unearthed 
on  the  rising  ground  near  the  river  in  very  recent  years. 
Their  possession  was  secure  and  undisputed,  when  one 
day,  around  the  broad  bend  to  the  west,  there  appeared 
a  strange  sail  on  an  open  barge.  As  it  drew  nearer  it  re- 

s 


4  MOUNT  VERNON 

vealed  a  company  of  fifteen  men  with  curiously  un- 
familiar faces,  not  the  copper  red  of  the  native,  but  pale 
like  none  they  had  ever  seen.  It  was  John  Smith  and 
his  hardy  adventurers  from  Jamestown  sailing  by  on 
then*  quest  of  "the  head  of  this  water  you  conceive  to  be 
endless."  They  pass  again,  out  with  the  current  and 
the  tide,  and  history  is  silent  about  the  upper  waters  of 
the  Potomac  for  over  a  quarter  of  a  century. 

Then  in  1634  the  white  sails  of  the  white  man  ap- 
peared again,  up  with  the  tide  and  fair  wind  from  the 
faraway  Chesapeake.  This  time  there  were  two  ships, 
the  Dove  and  a  pinnace,  belonging  to  Leonard  Calvert. 
This  first  Governor  of  Maryland  came  with  his  two 
hundred  pioneers  to  establish  a  colony  on  the  eastern 
shore  of  the  Potomac  under  the  royal  charter  granted 
by  King  Charles  II  to  Leonard's  brother  Cecil,  Lord 
Baltimore.  They  anchored  only  a  mile  above  the 
future  site  of  Mount  Vernon,  where  the  Piscataway 
meets  the  Potomac  under  the  heights  which  are  to  be 
first  the  Warburton  Manor  lands  of  Neighbor  Diggs  and 
later  are  to  be  crowned  with  the  gray  bastions  of  Fort 
Washington. 

Calvert  found  little  encouragement  from  the  Indians, 
and  the  beauty  of  the  spot  did  not  weigh  against  its 
isolation,  over  one  hundred  miles  from  the  "centre  of 
civilization  "  in  the  lower  waters  of  the  James.  He,  too, 
sailed  down  river  to  a  permanent  haven  for  his  followers 
near  the  mouth  of  the  Potomac,  almost  opposite  the 
point  on  the  Virginia  shore  where,  a  century  later,  was 
to  be  born  the  boy  who  would  become  the  liberator  of 
his  country. 

The  record  of  Calvert's  cruise  to  the  upper  Potomac 


MOUNT  VERNON  5 

is  followed  by  another  silence,  this  time  for  nearly  forty 
years,  for  all  that  is  told  of  explorations  or  settlements 
on  the  scene  of  this  story. 

In  the  meantime  there  are  fugitive  glimpses  of  nearby 
activities  of  the  white  men,  hunters  and  trappers,  some- 
times outposts  who  guard  the  advancing  frontier  from 
the  receding  Indian.  It  seems  always  to  have  been  a 
paradise  for  lovers  of  the  rod  and  gun.  Smith  found  the 
river  country  "much  frequented  with  wolves,  bears, 
deer,  and  other  wild  beasts  ....  in  the  course 
of  our  journeyings  we  also  met  with  a  few  beavers, 
otters,  bears,  martens,  and  minks;  and  in  divers  places 
there  was  such  an  abundance  of  fish,  lying  quite  thick, 
with  their  heads  above  the  water,  as  our  barge  drove 
through  them,  that  for  want  of  a  net  we  attempted  to 
catch  them  with  a  frying-pan,  but  we  found  it  a  bad  in- 
strument to  catch  fish  with."  While  the  brave  captain 
was  exploring  above  some  shoals,  "It  chanced  by  reason 
of  the  ebb-tide,  that  our  barge  grounded  on  one  of  them, 
and  there  we  must  abide  until  the  next  tide  came  to 
float  us.  As  I  was  looking  in  the  waters,  I  espied  many 
fishes  lurking  in  the  reeds,  and  for  sport  and  pastime,  to 
while  away  an  hour,  I  amused  myself  by  nailing  them 
to  the  ground  with  my  sword.  This  set  all  my  crew 
following  my  example,  and  by  this  means  we  caught 
more  fish  in  an  hour  than  we  could  eat  in  a  day." 

But  civilization  is  on  the  way.  Farther  down  river 
the  clearings  extend,  advancing  with  the  advancing 
century.  The  forests  translate  themselves  into  cabins, 
the  young  trees  into  snake  fences,  and  soon  the  in- 
exhaustible clay  gets  itself  baked  into  bricks  for  the 
planters*  mansions,  which  are  held  together  with  the 


6  MOUNT  VERNON 

finest  of  all  mortar  made  of  the  burnt  oyster  shells  taken 
from  the  beds  of  the  tidal  "creeks,"  which  give  endless 
diversity  to  the  shores  of  the  lower  Potomac.  Later, 
when  tune  has  aged  these  mansions  and  the  restorer 
comes  to  repair  their  century-old  walls,  he  will  find  that 
it  is  more  frequently  the  bricks  which  yield  and  crack 
under  the  pick  and  hammer  than  the  oyster-shell  mortar. 

Until  the  early  seventies  the  tracts  along  the  west 
bank  of  the  Potomac  from  Dogue's  Creek  to  Little 
Hunting  Creek  were  without  recorded  proprietors. 
Larger  tracts  of  which  this  was  a  part  were  then  granted, 
some  say  by  the  Crown  and  others  say  by  the  Royal 
Governor  in  Virginia.  The  recorders  and  later  chron- 
iclers seem  to  contribute  much  confusion.  Perhaps 
they  are  right,  and  the  seventeenth  century  state  of 
Northern  Neck  titles  was  confusing. 

Certain  it  is  that  Charles  II  hi  exile,  without  throne  or 
crown,  did  grant  to  two  tricky  favorites,  the  Earl  of 
Arlington  and  Lord  Culpepper,  "to  be  held  by  them  for 
thirty-one  years  at  a  yearly  rental  of  forty  shillings,"  all 
the  lands  between  the  Rappahannock  and  the  Potomac 
and  known  as  the  Northern  Neck.  Later  this  grant 
was  withdrawn  to  be  extended  again  on  a  larger  scale  to 
include  "all  that  tract  and  territory,  region  and  do- 
minion of  land  and  water  commonly  called  Virginia." 

Here  was  strong  meat  indeed  for  the  stomach  of 
freedmen.  It  would  not  digest  and  was  one  of  the 
causes  which  begat  Bacon's  Rebellion.  In  spite  of  re- 
sentment then*  title  seems  to  have  been  sustained,  for 
Arlington  conveyed  his  share  of  the  proprietorship  of 
Virginia  to  Culpepper,  and  the  title  deeds  to  Mount 
Vernon  begin  with  a  grant  from  Lord  Culpepper  "  in  the 


MOUNT  VERNON  7 

twenty  seventh  year  of  the  reign  of  our  Sovereigne  Lord, 
King  Charles  ye  Second,  Anno  Domini  1674,"  to  Lieu- 
tenant Colonel  John  Washington  and  Colonel  Nicholas 
Spencer,  of  five  thousand  acres  "scituate,  lying  and 
being  in  the  County  of  Stafford" — which  county  had 
been  cut  off  from  Westmoreland  and  from  a  part  of  which 
Prince  William  and  Fairfax  counties  were  later  created — 
"  in  the  ffreshes  of  the  Pottomeek  River  and  neare  oppo- 
site to  Piscataway,  Indian  towne  of  Mariland."  This 
Washington,  known  as  John  the  Emigrant,  was  the 
great-grandfather  of  George  of  Mount  Vernon,  and  was 
the  first  of  George  Washington's  forebears  to  cross  from 
England  to  America. 

The  greatness  of  George  Washington  inflamed  the 
imagination  of  his  early  biographers.  If  we  cannot 
abide  by  then*  accuracy  it  is  possible  to  be  amused  by 
their  invention.  One  of  them  traces  his  line  back 
through  generations  and  centuries  of  noble  and  valiant 
ancestors,  until  he  brings  up  at  the  throne  of  the  hearty 
Scandinavian  deity,  Odin,  "the  god  who  gives  victory." 
The  name  Washington  is  traced  from  de  Wessynton,  to 
Wessynton  without  the  de,  to  Wasshington  and  Wash- 
ington. As  last  written  it  early  appeared  as  the  name 
of  a  parish  in  the  County  of  Durham  in  England.  The 
forebears  of  our  Washington  trace  in  a  direct  line 
through  their  namesakes  of  Sulgrave  Manor,  North- 
amptonshire, to  John  Washington  of  Warton,  Lanca- 
shire. Beyond  him  is  conjecture.  After  him  the  line  is 
authentic.  His  son,  the  grantee  of  Sulgrave,  was 
named  Lawrence,  and  his  name,  like  his  father's,  re- 
appears frequently  in  future  generations.  In  the  coat- 
of-arms  engraved  on  this  Lawrence's  tomb  in  the  church 


8  MOUNT  VERNON 

at  Sulgrave  is  found  the  three  spur  rowels  above  the  red 
bars  on  a  white  field,  which  appeared  as  early  as  1360  in 
the  seal  of  William  de  Wessyngton,  and  which  are 
popularly  regarded  as  having  suggested  the  stars  and 
stripes  of  the  flag  of  the  United  States. 

Lawrence  of  Sulgrave  fell  upon  hard  times  and  he  was 
obliged  to  give  up  his  manor  house,  whereupon  his  good 
friend  and  neighbor,  Lord  Spencer,  hi  1606  built  him  the 
house  in  the  village  of  Little  Brington  where  he  lived 
during  the  remaining  years  of  his  life.  As  already  in- 
dicated, the  names  of  Washington  and  Spencer  are  to  be 
joined  again,  in  another  transaction  involving  a  home, 
but  in  Virginia  next  tune,  in  title  deeds  on  which  is 
founded  the  proprietorship  of  Mount  Vernon  itself. 

Washington  House,  as  it  has  been  known  and  pointed 
out  to  pilgrims  these  hundred  years,  was  afterward 
occupied  by  Lawrence's  brother  Robert  and  his  family. 
After  Robert's  death  Lawrence's  widow  came  again,  and 
lived  there  until  1636,  when  she  went  into  Essex  to 
make  her  home  with  her  son,  another  Lawrence,  who 
was  rector  of  Purleigh.  This  son,  the  Reverend 
Lawrence  Washington,  M.A.,  married  Amphillis  Rhodes 
and  their  issue  was  six  sons  and  daughters,  among  whom 
was  John  the  Emigrant,  and  his  brother,  third  of  the 
name  of  Lawrence,  and  a  sister,  who  both  followed  him 
to  America. 

At  this  time  England  was  in  civil  convulsion.  Charles 
II  was  in  banishment,  and  the  Puritans  of  the  eleven 
years'  commonwealth  were  carrying  government  with  a 
high  hand.  The  Washington  family  were  committed 
to  the  royalist  cause,  not  merely  by  their  holding  of  the 
Rectory  of  Purleigh,  but  by  the  traditional  sympathies 


MOUNT  VERNON  9 

inbred  by  generations  of  devotion  to  the  crown.  Poli- 
tics deprived  the  father  of  his  parish  in  1643,  and,  cast- 
ing about  for  opportunity  and  ease  from  petty  perse- 
cution, his  son  John,  and  later  his  son  Lawrence  and  the 
young  men's  sister,  crossed  the  seas  to  the  colony  of 
Virginia  as  recited  above. 

John  reached  Virginia  about  1658.  He  did  not  come 
at  once  to  the  upper  end  of  tidewater  Potomac.  His 
first  plantation  was  in  Westmoreland  County  between 
the  Rappahannock  and  the  Potomac,  and  it  gave  his 
name  to  the  parish.  Soon  he  married  for  his  second 
wife  Miss  Ann  Pope,  and,  where  Bridges  Creek  meets 
the  Potomac  seventy  miles  down  river  from  the  present 
capital,  he  built  a  modest  dwelling,  later  named  Wake- 
field.  Here  were  born  their  eldest  son,  Lawrence,  and 
this  Lawrence's  eldest  son,  Augustine. 

The  name  of  Washington  appeared  continually  in 
colonial  chronicles  both  of  Burgesses  and  vestry.  John 
Washington,  the  Emigrant,  was  a  member  of  the  House 
of  Burgesses,  and  the  recurrence  of  his  name  in  con- 
nection with  the  business  of  the  Assembly  indicates  that 
he  took  no  unimportant  part  in  its  work.  This  was  at 
Williamsburg.  On  Wakefield  plantation,  however,  so 
far  away  from  the  gay  little  capital  and  so  near  the 
frontier,  life  during  the  last  half  of  the  seventeenth 
century  was  even  and  uneventful,  save  for  brushes  with 
the  Indians  and  the  struggle  to  force  the  forest  back  and 
make  the  good  red  clay  yield  its  harvest. 

The  family  evidently  rose  to  some  estate,  for,  after  a 
little  more  than  fifty  years  in  Virginia,  it  is  able  to  send 
Augustine,  John's  grandson,  to  England  to  be  educated. 
On  his  return  he  married  Jane,  daughter  of  Caleb  But- 


10  MOUNT  YERNON 

ler,  of  Westmoreland,  who  bravely  wrote  "Esquire" 
after  his  name.  They  had  four  children,  but  of  them 
only  Lawrence  and  Augustine  lived  beyond  childhood. 
Jane  Washington  died  in  1728.  In  less  than  two  years 
Augustine  married  again,  this  time  Mary,  youngest 
daughter  of  Colonel  Joseph  Ball.  He  brought  her  to  his 
Bridges  Creek  plantation  overlooking  the  lower  Poto- 
mac, and  soon  the  first  blessing  of  this  union  was  re- 
corded in  the  old  quaint  quarto  Bible,  now  among  the 
treasures  at  Mount  Vernon,  in  these  terms: 


It  was  a  fruitful  union.  George's  younger  brothers 
were  Samuel,  John  Augustine,  and  Charles,  and  his 
sisters  were  Elisabeth,  who  appears  later  as  Betty,  and 
Mildred,  who  died  in  childhood. 

Other  lands  than  Wakefield  had  come  into  the  hands 
of  the  great-grandfather  of  Lawrence  and  his  half- 
brother  George,  as  already  noted  in  the  grant  from  Lord 
Culpepper,  the  crown  grantee.  This  five-thousand-acre 
holding  of  John  Washington  and  Nicholas  Spencer  was 
not  divided  until  1690.  Meantime  John  died  and  in  his 
will  bequeathed  his  half  of  this  tract  to  his  son  Lawrence. 
The  division  thirteen  years  later  gave  him  the  eastern 
half,  facing  Little  Hunting  Creek,  and  the  Spencer 
family  took  the  western  half,  facing  Dogue  Run. 

This  Lawrence  in  his  will  bequeathed  "all  my  land  in 

*Washington  was  born  February  1 1  old  style,  February  22  new  style.  See  page  217. 


MOUNT  VERNON  11 

Stafford  County,  lying  upon  Hunting  Creek  .  .  . 
by  estimation  2,500  acres,"  to  his  daughter  Mildred. 
It  has  been  stated  that  "Mildred  died  in  infancy,  and 
the  Hunting  Creek  estate  became  the  joint  possession  of 
the  widow  and  two  sons,  until  it  fell  to  the  survivor  of 
them  all,  Augustine,  about  the  year  1730."  Another 
historian  dismisses  this  transfer  with  the  comfortable 
though  indefinite  remark  that  "we  find.  Augustine 
Washington  ...  in  possession  of  one  hah6  of  the 
above  5,000  acres  in  1740." 

The  transfer  from  Mildred  to  Augustine  is  definitely 
accounted  for  by  a  deed  of  May  26,  1726,  from  Mildred 
and  her  husband,  Roger  Gregory,  to  Augustine  Wash- 
ington, "her  brother,"  for  "a  moietie  or  half  of  five 
thousand  acres  formerly  Lay'd  Out  for  Collo  Nicholas 
Spencer  and  the  father  of  Capt  Lawrence  Washington 
Bounded  as  follows  Begining  by  the  River  Side  at  the 
Mouth  of  Little  Hunting  Creek  and  Extending  up  the 
said  Creek  according  to  the  several  courses  and  Meand- 
ers thereof  nine  hundred  Eighty  and  Six  Poles  to  a 
mark'd  A  Corner  Tree  standing  on  the  West  side  of  the 
South  Branch  being  the  main  branch  of  said  Hunting 
Creek  From  there  by  a  lyne  of  Mark'd  trees  west 
eighteen  Degrees  South  across  a  Woods  to  the  Dividing 
Lyne  as  formerly  made  Between  Madam  Francis 
Spencer  and  Captain  Lawrence  Washington  and  from 
hence  W  by  the  said  Lyne  to  ye  River  and  with  the 
River  and  all  the  Courses  and  Meanders  of  the  said 
River  to  the  Mouth  of  the  Creek  afor'sd." 

Augustine  Washington  moved  up  river  and  estab- 
lished his  family  on  his  Hunting  Creek  lands  within  a 
short  time  after  George's  birth,  for  Augustine's  name 


12  MOUNT  VERNON 

appears  as  vestryman  of  Truro  Parish  in  1735.  Accom- 
panying the  Washingtons  came  their  friend  William 
Fairfax,  colonial  agent  of  his  cousin  Lord  Fairfax  in  Eng- 
land, on  whose  lands  he  settled,  nearby  his  friends. 

The  Fairfax  estate  was  a  long  peninsula  of  nearly 
three  thousand  acres  on  the  west  side  of  Dogue  Creek, 
and  it  was  one  of  the  finest  set  estates  on  the  river.  Its 
waterfront  measured,  by  all  its  "corses  and  meanders," 
nearly  ten  miles.  The  high  front  jutted  out  into  the 
deepest  point  of  the  river  channel,  and  the  creeks,  which 
flanked  it  east  and  west,  made  it  possible  to  enclose 
the  entire  acreage  with  little  more  than  one  mile  of  fence 
on  its  western  side.  On  the  glorious  promontory  over- 
looking the  river  William  Fairfax  built  Belvoir,  a  great 
house  destined  to  be  the  scene  of  much  that  was  signifi- 
cant in  the  lives  of  both  Lawrence  Washington  and  his 
young  brother  George. 

Augustine's  Hunting  Creek  plantation,  derived  orig- 
inally from  Lord  Culpepper,  is  described  in  his  father's 
bequest  of  1697  as  "the  land  where  Mrs.  Eliza  Minton 
and  Mrs.  Williams  now  live."  These  are  the  earliest 
recorded  dwellers  on  the  lands  later  to  become  so 
famous.  It  is  a  strange  prank  of  the  chronicles  to  call 
attention  to  two  women  dwelling  in  the  wilderness, 
pioneers  by  nearly  half  a  century  of  the  next  known 
resident.  Where  were  their  cabins — at  the  head  of  the 
creek  secluded  from  the  curiosity  of  river  rovers,  or 
standing  boldly  forth  on  the  mount  by  the  river,  with  a 
free  sweep  for  miles  above  and  below? 

From  1735,  when  Augustine  Washington  and  Mary 
his  wife  came  to  this  estate,  it  was  continually  owned 
and  occupied  by  a  Washington  for  one  hundred  and 


MOUNT  VERNON  13 

twenty-three  years,  when  the  fame  of  the  spot  and  the 
overwhelming  rush  of  pilgrims  grew  beyond  the  en- 
durance of  private  ownership  and  it  passed  into  the 
hands  of  the  association  of  patriotic  women  who  care  for 
it  now. 

With  AugufStine  and  Mary  were  their  children  George, 

Elisabeth,  and  Samuel,  and  possibly  John  Augustine, 

though  he  may  have  been  born  here.     If  Lawrence  and 

'istine,  the  elder  half-brothers  of   these  children, 

came  to  the  new  home  it  was  for  only  a  short  time,  for 

they  soon  went  to  England  and  entered  the  school  at 

Bkppleby,  up  near  the  Scottish  border,  in  the  County  of 

i|w\restmoreland,  for  which  their  own  native  county  in 

Virginia  had  been  named.     While  living  on  the  upper 

{Potomac  the  family  had  been  increased  by  the  birth  of  a 

^daughter,  christened  Mildred,  who  died  in  infancy. 

There  seems  to  be  no  conclusive  evidence  to  determine 

where  Augustine  built  the  first  house  on  this  tract. 

Some  historians  have  accepted  the  conjecture  that  he 

[.cleared  a  homestead  site  and  built  a  house  alongside  the 

[mill  which  so  long  survived  him,  where  the  trickling 

branch  met  the  tidal  Dogue  Creek.     This  use  of  the 

^  word  creek  for  bay  or  inlet  is  common  on  all  shores  of  the 

Chesapeake    and    its   tributary   rivers.     The   running 

feeder  of  the  creek  is  more  often  called  the  run  or  branch. 

It  was  so  in  colonial  days  and  it  is  the  same  to-day. 

Other  chroniclers  incline  to  the  theory  that  Augustine 
reared  his  house  on  or  near  the  site  of  the  present  man- 
sion. A  third  theory  places  it  on  the  site  of  the  green- 
house .  WTiere ver  it  stood ,  the  first  home  of  the  Washing- 
tons  on  this  site  was  short-lived.  It  burned  to  the  ground 
in  1739.  There  is  no  record  that  it  was  rebuilt.  If 


14  MOUNT  VERNON 

we  could  see  the  letters  that  had  been  passing  between 
Virginia  and  the  Virginian  schoolboys  in  English  West- 
moreland it  would  perhaps  be  easier  to  understand 
why  the  father  now  gathered  his  young  family  about 
him  again  and  moved  to  yet  another  Washington  prop- 
erty, "Cedar  Grove,"  the  Ferry  Farm,  on  the  Rappa- 
hannock,  opposite  Fredericksburg. 

This  thriving  little  city  was  no  mean  centsfc  at 
time.  It  was  second  in  importance  only  to  the  capital 
at  Williamsburg.  It  had  no  gold-laced  governoi 
busy  burgesses,  and  no  university,  but  it  was  a  flouMa 
ing  focus  of  trade  and  travel,  at  the  junction  of  all  th«3 
roads  from  the  South  with  the  Kingshighway  which 
led  to  the  northern  colonies;  not  a  bad  place  to  keep  in 
touch  with  the  world. 

Augustine  did  not  return  to  Westmoreland,  because 
his  second  son  and  namesake  was  then  home  from  Eng-. 
land,  or  on  his  way,  to  marry  rich  Miss  Aylett,  and' 
that  property  was  intended  for  him.  The  Hunting: 
Creek  tract  and  the  mill  nearby  he  had  in  mind  for  his 
eldest  boy,  Lawrence,  and  to  him  he  deeded  it  in  1740, 
at  the  same  time  confirming  the  gift  in  his  will. 

This  Lawrence,  the  third  of  the  name  in  America, 
becomes  of  particular  interest  to  this  narrative,  for  his; 
is  the  first  name  definitely  identified,  as  owner  and 
occupant,  with  the  historic  mansion  which  overlooks 
the  Potomac  to-day. 


CHAPTER  II 

What  Lawrence  Found  on  His  Tract — Pioneer  Buildings — Aban- 
dons  His  Estate  for  Military  Service  in  the  West  Indies 
Under  Admiral  Vernon — Returns  and  Marries  Anne  Fairfax — 
Career  of  Lawrence  Washington — Arrival  of  George  to  Make 
His  Home  at  Mount  Vernon — Parson  Weems — Influences 
on  George's  Young  Character  at  Mount  Vernon  and  at 
Belvoir— The  Original  House— Who  Built  It?— The  Corner- 
stone. 

WHEN  Lawrence  took  possession  of  his  estate 
4 'in  the  ffreshes  of  the  Pottomeek  river  and 
neare  opposite  to  Piscataway,  Indian  town  of 
Mariland,"  there  is  no  assurance  that  he  found  more  than 
two  important  buildings.     Of  cabins  for  the  slaves  and 
shelter  for  the  animals  there  was  probably  a  plenty  of 
some  kind,  but  the  enduring  "improvements"  were  the 
mill  back  at  the  head  of  Dogue  Creek  and  probably  the 
old  brick  barn  on  the  mount  overlooking  the  river. 

The  mill  ground  flour  for  over  a  century,  and  the 
ancients  of  the  neighborhood  can  still  remember  it 
standing  before  the  Civil  War.  Eventually  it  suc- 
cumbed to  abandonment,  though  even  to-day  one 
traces  its  dimensions  in  the  rounded  banks  left  on  the 
site  of  its  foundations,  which  were  pilfered  piecemeal  to 
help  support  many  a  younger  house  in  the  neighborhood. 
The  mill  is  worth  bearing  in  mind,  for  it  will  have  its 
part  to  play  in  this  story,  and  will  be  the  last  place  on 
the  estate  visited  by  its  chief  personage  before  he  died. 
The  barn  has  fared  better  than  the  mill.  It  stands  to- 

15 


16  MOUNT  VERNON 

day  stout  and  strong,  the  proud  veteran  of  the  village 
of  buildings  on  either  side  of  the  bowling  green. 

There  are  various  scraps  of  tradition  about  other 
pioneer  buildings.  Lossing  speaks  of  "the  original 
cottage"  where  hung  "the  dingy  iron  lantern"  which 
during  George's  occupancy  of  the  mansion  lighted  the 
hall.  The  lantern  was  taken  to  Arlington  after  Mrs. 
Washington's  death,  and  after  a  long  interval  at  the 
National  Museum  in  the  Capital  City  is  again  in  the 
hall  at  Mount  Vernon.  There  is  a  tradition  in  the 
Washington  family  that  the  lantern  was  given  to  Law- 
rence by  Admiral  Vernon.  Where  "the  original  cot- 
tage" stood  or  what  became  of  it  Lossing  did  not  say. 
Moncure  D.  Con  way  says  "an  old  house  stood  where 
Washington  built  his  greenhouses  in  which  probably 
the  four  years  of  his  childhood  there  were  passed," 
and  asserts  with  certainty  that  Lawrence  built  Mount 
Vernon  house. 

WTiatever  Lawrence  found  on  his  estate  when  he 
came  into  possession,  he  seems  to  have  had  other  ideas 
than  settling  down  to  the  We  of  a  planter.  At  twenty- 
two  the  heel  is  spry.  Besides,  the  call  had  gone  forth 
from  the  mother  country  for  a  quota  of  troops  from  her 
American  colonies  to  reinforce  General  Wentworth  and 
Admiral  Vernon,  who  were  disciplining  the  West  Indian 
Spanish. 

Lawrence  received  a  captain's  commission,  departed 
with  the  colonial  troops,  fought  at  Carthagena,  sur- 
vived the  fever  scourge  which  swept  away  many  times 
more  than  Spanish  marksmanship,  and  returned  to  his 
Potomac  estate  in  the  autumn  of  1742. 

What  of  his  land  in  the  interval?     Did  it  await  its 


LA. WHENCE  WASHINGTON 

Half-lirother  of  George  and  reputed  builder  of  Mount  Vernon.     From  a  painting 
in  the  possession  of  Lawrence  Washington 


MOUNT  VERNON  17 

master's  coming  untenanted  and  abandoned,  or  are 
we  privileged  to  think  of  it  still  humanized  by  the  pres- 
ence of  the  aged  but  undaunted  Amazons  of  the  frontier, 
Mrs.  Minton  and  Mrs.  Williams? 

His  sympathy  with  a  military  career  and  his  affection 
for  his  commanders,  Vernon  and  Wentworth,  were  so 
strong  that  he  displayed  some  restlessness  on  his  return 
to  Virginia  and  considered  going  to  England  and  joining 
his  regiment.  But  another  and  stronger  affection  had 
taken  root  in  his  heart,  one  that  bound  him  to  Virginia 
and  his  own  neighborhood  with  tender  but  unyielding 
bonds. 

At  the  neighboring  mansion  of  Belvoir  there  was  more 
than  a  neighbor's  welcome  for  him.  William  Fan-fax 
had  two  daughters,  and  Lawrence  spent  the  whiter 
after  his  return  in  the  most  absorbing  of  all  adventures, 
that  of  winning  a  wife.  In  the  spring  of  1743  he  and 
Anne  Fairfax,  the  elder  of  the  two  sisters,  were  prepared 
to  be  married,  when  he  was  summoned  down  to  Cedar 
Grove,  opposite  Fredericksburg,  by  the  illness  and 
death  of  his  father,  and  he  became  the  head  of  the 
family  in  America.  He  was  an  executor  of  his  father's 
will  and  devoted  himself  to  his  father's  bequests.  In 
July  he  went  over  to  Belvoir,  claimed  his  bride,  and 
brought  her  to  their  home  on  the  heights  which,  in 
remembrance  of  his  admired  commander,  he  named 
Mount  Vernon. 

Nature  is  constant,  and  to-day  the  same  outlook 
charms  the  eye  from  the  Mount  Vernon  doorway  that 
greeted  Lawrence  and  Anne.  Before  them  the  river 
extended  nearly  a  mile  from  the  Virginia  to  the  Mary- 
land shore.  To  the  left  it  seemed  to  sweep  toward 


18  MOUNT  VERNON 

them  through  a  break  in  a  high  ridge.  Already  the 
Digges  family  had  reared  Warburton  Manor  on  the 
opposite  point,  where  now  rises  Fort  Washington,  and 
at  its  foot  broad  Piscataway  Creek,  joining  the  Poto- 
mac, lay  revealed  along  its  more  than  two  miles  of 
length.  The  low  Maryland  shore  opposite  accented 
the  height  of  Mount  Vernon.  To  the  right  the  river 
swept  majestically  to  the  southwest,  passed  the  high 
green  point  of  Belvoir,  and  was  abruptly  bended  toward 
the  south  by  the  distant  shore  of  Mason's  Neck,  where, 
back  on  the  highland,  was  soon  to  rise  George  Mason's 
Gunston  Hall.  The  panorama  embraced  nearly  twelve 
miles  of  water. 

Mount  Vernon  stands  on  what  is  literally  a  mount, 
though  to  the  casual  observer  the  house  appears  to 
stand  merely  on  a  high  bank,  a  part  of  a  continuous 
shore-line  elevation.  The  land  in  fact  slopes  away  in  all 
directions.  On  the  west  it  descends  to  the  first  river 
bottom  elevation,  which  extends  the  mile  and  a  quarter 
to  Dogue's  Creek.  On  the  east  it  falls  away  to  the 
water  at  its  boundary,  Little  Hunting  Creek,  and  on 
this  side  of  the  estate  the  west  bank  of  the  Potomac 
does  not  rise  again  to  the  same  level  until  it  reaches 
the  highlands  at  Georgetown.  On  the  north  and  west 
the  elevation  drops  away  to  the  broad  valley  through 
which  runs  the  historic  Kingshighway. 

Lawrence  was  twenty-five  years  old  at  the  time  of  his 
marriage,  and  during  the  next  ten  years  he  developed 
into  one  of  the  important  men  of  the  colony.  His 
marriage  had  united  him  to  one  of  the  great  families 
of  Virginia,  for  Anne  was  a  cousin  of  Thomas  Lord 
Fa  Wax,  and  her  half-brother,  Bryan,  succeeded  to  the 


MOUNT  VERNON  19 

title  though  he  did  not  assume  it.  His  landed  posses- 
sions exceeded  twenty-five  hundred  acres,  for  to  his 
hereditary  tract  he  added  at  least  two  hundred  acres 
near  the  mill.  The  royal  governor  appointed  him  adju- 
tant of  his  military  district,  with  the  rank  of  major, 
though  with  a  salary  of  only  one  hundred  and  fifty 
pounds  a  year,  and  he  repeatedly  represented  his  county 
in  the  House  of  Burgesses  at  Williamsburg.  In  1750  he 
was  made  president  of  the  Ohio  Company,  formed  the 
year  before  to  colonize  the  great  wilderness  of  the  Ohio 
Valley,  under  a  royal  grant  of  five  hundred  thousand 
acres. 

In  his  effort  to  carry  out  the  work  of  the  company 
of  which  he  found  himself  the  president  he  proposed 
introducing^  German  immigrants  from  the  colony  of 
Pennsylvania.  Being  dissenters,  they  ran  into  a  net 
of  double  taxation  by  moving  into  the  jurisdiction  of 
Virginia,  which  was  the  occasion  for  Lawrence  Wash- 
ington, in  the  face  of  the  state  establishment,  to  deliver 
what  is  one  of  the  first,  if  not  the  first,  appeals  for  relig- 
ious tolerance  in  the  history  of  the  colony  of  Virginia. 

"  It  has  ever  been  my  opinion  and  I  hope  it  ever  will 
be,"  he  said,  "that  restraints  on  conscience  are  cruel 
in  regard  to  those  on  whom  they  are  imposed,  and  in- 
jurious to  the  country  imposing  them." 

Lawrence  left  no  journals  and  few  letters.  There  is 
little  on  which  to  found  a  picture  of  life  at  Mount 
Vernon  while  he  was  master.  It  could  scarcely  have 
been  gay.  Anne  bore  him  four  children,  but  not  one 
lived  beyond  babyhood. 

To  break  their  loneliness  Lawrence's  young  brother 
George  often  came  to  visit  them,  sometimes  sailing  up 


20  MOUNT  VERNON 

river  from  Westmoreland,  oftener  on  horseback  over 
the  road  from  his  mother's  place  at  Fredericksburg. 
These  visits  meant  much  to  both  brothers,  for  the 
affection  which  existed  between  them  is  often  attested. 

Though  George  was  merely  in  his  mid-teens,  he  was 
Lawrence's  eldest  unmarried  brother  and  the  prospec- 
tive head  of  the  family.  A  real  intimacy  existed  between 
Lawrence  of  twenty-nine  and  George  of  fifteen,  and  it 
disclosed  the  boy's  promise  to  the  elder's  shrewd  ob- 
servation. 

Such  accounts  of  George's  youth  as  have  come  down 
to  us  languish  under  the  doubts  of  the  historians.  How- 
ever, that  which  cannot  be  proven  need  not  be  de- 
spised. Conway  calls  it  "Washington  Mythology,  a 
folklore  such  as  must  always  invest  the  founders  of 
nations  or  the  man  of  the  people.  Washington  is  en- 
titled to  his  Washington-lore,  by  which,  indeed,  he  is 
rather  draped  than  disguised." 

Lawrence  saw  him  through  no  such  illumination.  He 
was  doubtless  not  less  amused  than  edified  by  the  boy's 
first  literary  product,  the  astonishing  Rules  of  Civility 
and  Conduct,  written  when  he  was  fourteen.  If  he  left 
his  brief  schooling  "a  bad  speller  and  a  still  worse 
grammarian,"  Lawrence  knew  him  for  a  good  cipherer, 
a  skilful  horseman,  and  a  young  man  of  firm  grasp  and 
sound  judgment,  of  normal  appetites,  willingness,  ap- 
plication, endurance,  and  thoroughness  in  work  and 
play. 

There  came  a  day  in  the  autumn  of  1747  when 
George  arrived,  not  to  visit  merely.  He  came  to  make 
Mount  Vernon  his  home.  It  had  in  reality  been  familiar 
to  him  from  his  earliest  recollection.  His  father  had 


ADMIRAL  YERNON 

For  whom   Lawrence   Washington  named   his  home   on  the   Potomac.      From  an 
engraving  at   Mount   Vernon 


MOUNT  VERNON  31 

moved  up  river  from  Westmoreland  when  George  was 
only  three  years  old,  too  young  to  have  left  behind  any 
permanent  impressions,  but  old  enough  to  enjoy  his 
environment.  It  was  the  waters  of  Hunting  Creek  and 
Dogue  Creek  and  the  fields  and  woods  between  which 
were  the  background  of  his  first  boyhood  experiences. 

Here  "in  his  sixth  year,"  according  to  Parson  Weems, 
he  acted  the  immortal  scene  of  the  cherry-tree  and  the 
hatchet,  a  piece  of  boyish  heroism  it  is  pleasant  to  see 
growing  again  into  some  standing  as  history  after  the 
long  reaction  against  its  acceptance.  Parson  Weems 
was  a  victim  of  his  own  florid,  extravagant  style.  The 
incidents  he  related  very  probably  did  not  happen  as  he 
related  them,  but  stripped  of  the  halo  of  romantic 
morality  he  gave  them,  in  merely  following  a  literary 
fashion  of  his  time,  there  is  little  reason  to  discredit 
them.  The  writer  had  excellent  opportunity  to  gather 
the  facts  of  George's  boyhood  at  first,  or,  at  most, 
second  hand.  He  knew  him,  man  and  boy,  well.  For  a 
time  he  officiated  at  Pohick  Church,  which  the  Mount 
Vernon  family  attended  and  which  he  erroneously,  but 
with  an  eye  to  the  main  chance,  called  "Mount  Vernon 
Parish  "  on  his  title  page.  Moreover,  he  was  an  intimate 
of  Washington's  intimates  and  married  Fanny  Ewell,  of 
Belle  Aire,  whose  mother  was  a  near  relative  of  Wash- 
ington's. Perhaps  she  was  the  anonymous  lady  from 
whom  he  acknowledges  having  received  the  cherry-tree 
story. 

Until  he  returned  to  Mount  Vernon  to  live  George  had 
four  homes  among  which  he  divided  his  time.  The 
schooldays  were  spent  at  his  mother's  house  on  the 
Rappahannock.  The  earlier  vacation  days  he  spent  at 


22  MOUNT  VERNON 

his  birthplace,  Wakefield,  down  on  the  Westmoreland 
shore  of  the  Potomac,  visiting  his  half-brother,  Augus- 
tine, whom  he  called  Austin.  His  mother's  home  was 
somewhat  austere.  There  was  another  kind  of  life  at 
Wakefield,  kept  up  by  his  rich  sister-in-law's  money. 

It  was  at  Belvoir  and  Mount  Vernon,  however,  that 
he  found  the  stimulating  and  refining  influences  which 
reacted  on  his  character.  Lawrence  was  a  far-travelled 
man.  He  had  been  to  school  in  England  and  had  fought 
in  the  West  Indies.  In  the  adventures  he  recounted 
there  was  fuel  indeed  for  a  hungry  boyish  curiosity. 
Vessels  of  His  Majesty's  navy  came  up  the  river  and 
anchored  off  Mount  Vernon,  and  the  officers,  among 
whom  were  some  with  whom  Lawrence  had  fought  at 
Carthagena,  came  ashore.  Over  the  punch  and  toddy, 
through  the  haze  of  smoke  rolling  from  the  long  church- 
wardens, while  the  candles  burned  bright,  there  was 
brave  talk  enough,  of  campaigns  and  strategy,  to  fire 
the  imagination  of  the  listening  lad  of  fifteen. 

At  Belvoir  he  came  under  another  influence,  that  of  a 
polished  English  household,  no  negligible  substitute  for 
that  trip  abroad  which  he  was  never  privileged  to  take. 
At  his  mother's  there  was  the  discipline  and  the  sound, 
simple  morality  which  strengthened  the  root  and  branch 
of  his  character,  but  at  Mount  Vernon  and  Belvoir  he 
found  an  outlook  on  a  broader  world  of  experience  and 
culture  which  produced  the  bloom  thereon. 

The  Mount  Vernon  that  young  George  came  to  was 
far  from  being  the  extensive  mansion  which  he  left  fifty 
years  later  and  which  the  pilgrim  finds  to-day.  There 
was  no  spreading  village  of  outbuildings.  The  big 
brick  barn  and  only  a  few  frail  sheds  and  cabins  for  the 


«  o 

sa  | 

Q  t, 

d  ^ 


MOUNT  VERNON  23 

slaves  stood  detached  from  the  house.  There  were 
no  colonnades  flung  from  the  ends,  no  lofty  portico 
on  the  river  front,  and  the  house  itself  was  only  a 
portion  of  the  mansion  into  which  it  later  expanded. 

The  history  of  the  house  is  easily  read  in  the  evidence 
in  the  building  itself,  and  George  Washington's  letters 
confirm  the  conjectures  of  the  architectural  archeologist. 
Detach  the  present  banquet  hall  on  the  north  and  the 
library  on  the  south,  together  with  the  second  story 
thereof,  and  the  developments  of  the  third  story,  and 
the  original  house  remains.  Then,  as  to-day,  there  was 
the  central  hall  extending  from  western  front  to  river 
front,  but  divided  at  that  time  by  a  partition  midway 
between  the  two  doors  on  each  of  the  sides.  On  each 
side  of  the  hall  were  two  rooms.  The  same  stairway 
wound  gracefully  to  the  second  floor,  where  the  small 
upper  hall  opened  into  the  four  large  bedrooms  over  the 
four  large  rooms  below,  and  a  small  room  matched  the 
space  at  the  east  end  of  the  hall.  It  was  not  accounted 
a  large  house  for  a  colonial  country  gentleman  of 
family. 

The  foundations  were  of  sandstone.  The  cellar  ex- 
tended the  full  length  and  breadth  of  the  house,  with 
partition  walls  of  brick  held  by  oyster-shell  mortar. 
This  stone  is  showing  age  in  a  way  that  might  be 
translated  into  an  argument  for  the  theory  that  they 
held  up  Augustine  Washington's  house  which  burned 
in  1739.  Years  and  whitewash  have  destroyed  all 
charred  traces,  if  there  were  any.  But  the  damp, 
which  creeps  into  the  cool  cellar  in  the  hot  summer  and 
is  evaporated  by  the  artificial  heat  introduced  over  the 
past  twenty  winters,  is  having  a  curious  pulverizing 


24  MOUNT  VERNON 

effect  which  the  severe  baking  in  an  early  fire  might 
explain. 

Midway  of  the  central  north  and  south  alley  there 
was  found  in  the  west  wall,  years  ago,  a  carefully  en- 
graved stone  called  "the  corner  stone."  It  may  be 
seen  to-day  under  glass  in  one  of  the  upper  rooms  of  the 
mansion,  whither  it  has  been  removed  out  of  danger  of 
the  disintegrating  effects  of  the  damp  and  heat.  A 
copy,  cut  to  scale,  has  been  inserted  in  the  place  of  the 
original  in  the  cellar  wall.  The  stone  is  twenty-three 
inches  long,  by  seventeen  and  one-half  inches  high,  by 
six  inches  thick.  In  the  centre  of  the  carved  face  are 
two  crossed  battle-axes  in  whose  angle  is  engraved  a 
heart.  On  either  side  of  the  axes  are  the  initials  of 
Lawrence  Washington,  "L.  W."  It  adds  to  the  enigma 
of  the  original  builder,  for  apparently  only  he  himself 
would  have  put  his  initials  on  the  cornerstone.  Those 
who  advance  his  father,  Augustine,  as  the  builder  of 
Mount  Vernon  say  that  he  intended  the  house  for  this 
son  and  they  claim  the  initialled  stone  as  evidence  of  their 
theory. 

In  one  corner  of  the  original  cellars,  the  one  to  the 
southwest,  there  is  a  well  opening  filled  up  but  clearly 
defined.  A  curious  place  to  put  a  well,  it  would  seem, 
but  conditions  at  the  time  explain.  It  is  said  to  have 
been  the  custom  in  the  colonies,  at  least  for  houses  in  the 
new  country  on  the  frontier  not  far  from  the  receding 
Indians,  to  dig  a  well  under  the  house,  so  that  in  case  of 
barricade  against  attack  or  in  case  the  women  of  the 
family  wanted  water  in  the  absence  of  the  menfolk,  there 
would  be  a  protected  supply  in  reach  without  risk. 

The  original  hand-hewn  oak  beams  are  apparently  as 


MOUNT  VERNON  25 

strong  to-day  as  when  laid  in.  There,  too,  are  the  stout 
oak  pins  with  which  they  were  put  together.  Nails 
were  not  admitted  to  the  larger  timbers  of  the  colonial 
house.  It  is  only  in  the  lighter  pieces  of  the  trim  and  in 
the  broad  planked  floors  that  nails  appear.  They  were 
handwrought,  in  a  forge  on  the  place  as  a  rule,  and  their 
heads  were  long  and  exceeding  thin. 

There  is  nothing  to  gainsay  the  belief  that  George 
saw  these  cellars  dug  and  walled;  the  huge  oaks  felled 
and  hewn  and  pinned  in  place;  the  walls  reared  and 
roofed  and  the  whole  put  under  the  protection  of  the 
coats  of  white  lead  and  oil,  for  the  house  was  a  part  of  all 
his  life. 


CHAPTER  III 

Lawrence  Plans  George's  Career — Letter  of  Uncle  Joseph  Ball — 
Fox  Hunting  with  Lord  Fairfax— Absent  Surveying  in  The 
Valley — Sentimental  Manifestations — Military  Tutors  at 
Mount  Vernon — Lawrence  111 — Lawrence  and  George  Sail 
for  Barbadoes — Return  and  Death  and  Will  of  Lawrence — 
George  Master  of  Mount  Vernon. 

A :*ROPER  career  for  George  was  one  of  the  topics 
much  discussed  at  Mount  Vernon  at  this  time. 
His  two  advisers  were  Lawrence  and  Lord  Fair- 
fax, who  had  come  to  Virginia  and  made  his  home  with 
his  cousin  William  nearby  at  Belvoir. 

Lawrence  had  fancied  a  career  at  sea,  hoping  that, 
after  some  experience  before  the  mast,  some  influence 
might  be  controlled  to  secure  a  commission  in  the 
Royal  Navy.  George  yielded  to  the  romance  of  this 
idea.  His  father  is  said  to  have  followed  the  sea  in 
earlier  days.  His  trunk  was  packed,  and  there  is  said 
to  have  been  a  vessel  anchored  below  the  house  on 
which  he  was  to  have  shipped.  His  mother,  however, 
was  of  another  mind.  When  the  project  was  first 
broached  she  wrote  to  her  brother,  a  London  lawyer, 
and  from  all  accounts  she  arrived  at  Mount  Vernon 
with  his  reply  at  the  last  moment  before  her  boy's 
departure. 

The  letter,  carefully  considered,  dissipates  the  myth 
that  Lawrence  had  actually  secured  a  midshipman's 
commission  in  the  navy.  Moreover,  it  gives  some 

26 


THK   CoRXtH   STONK   OF   MOUNT   VKRXON 

Tlie  original  stone  was  found  in  the  walls  of  the  cellar  in  a  crumbling  condition. 

To  prevent  further  disintegration  it  was  removed,  a  duplicate  was  inserted 

in  its  place,  and  the  original  stone  is  preserved  under  cover  in  an  upper 

chamber  of  the  Mansion.     It  is  here  reproduced  for  the  first  time 


MOUNT  VERNON  27 

gauge  of  the  Washington  family's  sphere  and  influence; 
and  of  George's  expectations;  and  is  sound,  direct,  vig- 
orous, and  refreshing: 

"I  understand  that  you  are  advised  and  have  some 
thoughts  of  putting  your  son  George  to  sea.  I  think 
he  had  better  be  apprenticed  to  a  tinker,  for  a  common 
sailor  before  the  mast  has  by  no  means  the  common 
liberty  of  the  subject;  for  they  will  press  him  from  a 
ship  where  he  has  fifty  shillings  a  month  and  make  him 
take  twenty-three,  and  cut,  and  slash,  and  use  him  like 
a  negro,  or  rather  like  a  dog.  And,  as  to  any  consider- 
able preferment  in  the  navy,  it  is  not  to  be  expected, 
as  there  are  always  so  many  gaping  for  it  here  who  have 
interest,  and  he  has  none.  And  if  he  should  get  to  be 
master  of  a  Virginia  ship  (which  it  is  very  difficult 
to  do),  a  planter  that  has  three  or  four  hundred  acres 
of  land  and  three  or  four  slaves,  if  he  be  industrious, 
may  live  more  comfortably,  and  leave  his  family  in 
better  bread,  than  such  a  master  of  a  ship  can.  .  .  . 
He  must  not  be  too  hasty  to  be  rich,  but  go  on  gently 
and  with  patience,  as  things  will  naturally  go.  This 
method,  without  aiming  at  being  a  fine  gentleman  be- 
fore his  time,  will  carry  a  man  more  comfortably  and 
surely  through  the  world  than  going  to  sea,  unless  it 
be  a  great  chance  indeed.  I  pray  God  keep  you  and 
yours. 

"Your  loving  brother, 

"JOSEPH  BALL." 

This  cleared  the  air.  George  remained  at  home  and 
devoted  himself  to  his  studies,  among  which  mathe- 
matics was  the  most  congenial;  to  sports;  somewhat 


28  MOUNT  VERNON 

to  sentimental  matters;  and  a  great  deal  to  the  com- 
panionship of  his  elders  at  home  and  at  the  mansion 
across  Dogue  Creek. 

The  fox,  like  the  Indian,  and  certain  other  aborigines 
mentioned  by  John  Smith,  has  been  pushed  westward. 
He  still  furnishes  sport  in  the  hills  and  in  certain  parts 
of  The  Valley,  but  he  is  no  longer  enough  in  evidence  in 
Fairfax  to  maintain  fox-hunting  in  its  place  in  the 
country  gentleman's  life  that  it  held  in  Washington's 
youth.  It  was  in  fact  the  boy's  favorite  sport.  Lord 
Fairfax  was  equally  fond  of  the  chase,  and  together 
they  hunted  Reynard  over  the  hills  and  meadows, 
through  fields  and  woods,  for  days  at  a  time.  The 
climate  of  Virginia  and  the  country  life  of  the  period 
invited  to  the  open  air. 

It  was  in  the  saddles  that  these  two  boon  compan- 
ions became  best  acquainted,  Washington  silent  and 
attentive,  his  lordship  sharing  with  him  the  treasures 
of  a  rare  mind  well  stocked  with  rare  experience.  Lord 
Fairfax  was  a  graduate  of  Oxford,  his  family  gave  him 
easy  access  to  the  best  society  of  London,  and  he  had 
been  a  contributor  to  Mr.  Addison's  Spectator.  It  is 
said  that  he  was  jilted  on  his  wedding  day  for  a  higher 
title.  His  disappointment  and  chagrin  seemed  to 
change  his  whole  outlook  on  society.  Journeying  to 
Virginia  to  see  his  vast  land  holdings,  administered 
by  William  of  Belvoir,  he  was  so  delighted  with  what 
he  saw  that  he  later  took  up  his  home  on  his  estate 
in  the  lower  Shenandoah  Valley,  where  he  lived  into  his 
ninetieth  year. 

The  companionship  and  interest  of  such  a  patron 
was  the  most  fortunate  substitute  for  the  university 


^ 

u 

- 


*•" 

* 


a^« 


<t4""*~3>';£o<: 
*         *     '  'I  v 

-'^"  ^T"  ^T     ^/ 

gt^ 


SURVEY   OF  MOUNT  VERXON 

Made  by  George  Washington  when  a  boy,  about  1746.  The  original  is  in  the 
Library  of  Congress.  Note  the  house  in  the  left  upper  corner,  without  the  addi- 
tions made  during  the  Revolution.  The  plantation  at  that  time  comprised  the 
east  half  of  the  original  grant  of  ,>,00()  acres  to  Nicholas  Spencer  and  John  Wash- 
ington extending  along  the  Potomac  River  from  Little  Hunting  Creek  to  Dogue 
Creek.  George  Washington  later  purchased  the  west  half  and  other  adjoining 
lands  so  that  eventually  his  Mount  Yemen  estate  comprised  more  than  eight 
thousand  acres 


MOUNT  VERNON  29 

education  and  sojourn  abroad,  so  much  affected  by 
other  young  colonial  gentlemen,  that  could  have  come 
to  an  open  and  serious  mind  of  Washington's  years. 

It  was  at  Lord  Fairfax's  suggestion  that  he  took  up 
surveying  as  a  career.  After  charting  Mount  Vernon 
and  Belvoir,  he  set  out  to  survey  his  lordship's  thou- 
sands of  acres  in  The  Valley. 

He  left  Mount  Vernon  early  in  March,  1748,  and  was 
absent  a  month  and  two  days.  The  journal  of  this 
trip  is  not  without  its  amusing  passages.  Of  the  15th 
and  16th  of  March  he  writes: 

"We  got  our  suppers  &  was  Lighted  into  a  Room  & 
I  not  being  so  good  a  woodsman  as  ye  rest  of  my  com- 
pany, striped  myself  very  orderly  and  went  into  ye 
Bed,  as  they  calld  it,  when  to  my  surprize,  I  found  it 
to  be  nothing  but  a  little  straw  matted  together  without 
sheets  or  anything  else,  but  only  one  thread  bear  blan- 
ket with  double  its  weight  of  vermin,  such  as  Lice, 
Fleas,  &c.  I  was  glad  to  get  up  (as  soon  as  ye  Light 
was  carried  from  us.)  I  put  on  my  cloths  &  lay  as  my 
companions.  Had  we  not  been  very  tired,  I  am  sure 
we  would  not  have  slep'd  much  that  night.  I  made  a 
Promise  not  to  sleep  so  from  that  time  forward,  chusing 
rather  to  sleep  in  ye  open  air  before  a  fire,  as  will  appear 
hereafter. 

"Wednesday  16th.  We  got  out  early  &  finish'd 
about  one  o'clock  &  then  travelled  up  to  Frederick 
Town,  where  our  Baggage  came  to  us.  We  cleaned 
ourselves  (to  get  Rid  of  ye  Game  we  had  catched  ye 
night  before) .  I  took  a  Review  of  ye  Town  &  then  re- 
tum'd  to  our  Lodgings  where  we  had  a  good  Dinner 


30  MOUNT  VERNON 

prepared  for  us.  Wine  &  Rum  Punch  in  plenty,  &  a 
good  Feather  Bed  with  clean  sheets,  which  was  a  very 
agreeable  regale." 

One  day's  journey  from  home,  on  his  return,  he  did 
"this  day  see  a  Rattled  snake,  ye  first  we  had  seen  in 
all  our  journey."  No  doubt  he  was  better  acquainted 
with  the  black  snakes  and  moccasins  of  Fairfax.  On 
the  13th  of  April,  he  notes:  "Mr.  Fairfax  got  safe 
home  and  I  Myself  to  my  Brothers,  which  concludes 
my  journal." 

One  of  two  letters  written  on  this  trip  shows  his 
interest  growing  in  another  direction : 

"DEAR  FRIEND  ROBIN, 

"As  it's  the  greatest  mark  of  friendship  and  esteem, 
absent  friends  can  show  each  other,  in  writing  and 
often  communicating  their  thoughts,  to  his  fellow  com- 
panions, I  make  one  endeavor  to  signalize  myself  in 
acquainting  you,  from  time  to  time,  and  at  all  times, 
my  situation  and  employments  of  life,  and  could  wish 
you  would  take  hah0  the  pains  of  contriving  me  a  letter 
by  any  opportunity,  as  you  may  be  well  assured  of  its 
meeting  with  a  very  welcome  reception.  My  place  of 
residence  is  at  present  at  his  Lordship's,  where  I  might, 
was  my  heart  disengaged,  pass  my  time  very  pleasantly 
as  there's  a  very  agreeable  young  lady  lives  in  the  same 
house,  (Colonel  George  Fairfax's  wife's  sister.)  But 
as  that's  only  adding  fuel  to  fire,  it  makes  me  the  more 
uneasy,  for  by  often,  and  unavoidably,  being  in  com- 
pany with  her  revives  my  former  passion  for  your 
Lowland  beauty;  whereas,  was  I  to  live  more  retired 
from  young  women,  I  might  in  some  measure  eliviate 


MOUNT  VERNON  31 

my  sorrows,  by  burying  that  chaste  and  troublesome 
passion  in  the  grave  of  oblivion  or  etarnall  forgetful- 
ness,  for  as  I  am  very  well  assured,  that's  the  only 
antidote  or  remedy,  that  I  shall  ever  be  relieved  by  or 
only  recess  that  can  administer  any  cure  or  help  to  me, 
as  I  am  well  convinced,  was  I  ever  to  attempt  any 
thing,  I  should  only  get  a  denial  which  would  be  only 
adding  grief  to  uneasiness." 

From  which  it  seems  George  did  not  take  seriously 
Lord  Fairfax's  warnings  about  women,  of  whom,  as  has 
been  seen,  his  lordship's  early  experience  had  made  him 
as  suspicious  and  bitter  as  later  on  Tony  Weller  was  of 
"vidders." 

At  Mount  Vernon  these  were  quiet  and  uneventful 
years.  In  this  the  life  on  the  estate  only  reflected  the 
calm  of  the  colony.  There  was  no  war  on  at  the  time 
with  French  or  Indian,  no  trouble  with  colonial  governor, 
and  not  yet  any  acute  trouble  with  the  mother  coun- 
try. There  was  peace,  plenty,  and  growth.  Lawrence 
devoted  himself  to  his  estate  and  to  his  public  offices  as 
adjutant  of  the  militia,  member  of  the  House  of  Bur- 
gesses, and  president  of  the  Ohio  Company. 

George,  though  still  in  his  nonage,  pursued  his  career 
as  surveyor  in  earnest.  It  is  said  that  he  had  an  office 
in  the  small  but  important  city  of  Alexandria,  on 
the  Potomac  six  miles  above  Mount  Vernon,  and  that 
he  rode  back  and  forth  over  the  rolling  country  on 
horseback.  In  the  summer  of  1749  he  was  appointed 
surveyor  of  the  County  of  Culpepper,  just  west  of 
Fredericksburg.  His  surveyor's  tripod  may  be  seen 
in  the  library  at  Mount  Vernon. 


32  MOUNT  VERNON 

At  this  time  every  day's  absence  must  have  been  an 
anxiety,  for  his  brother,  who  had  been  to  him  friend 
and  father  as  well,  began  to  develop  the  weakness  of 
the  lungs  which  was  his  eventual  undoing.  The  win- 
ters of  1750  and  1751  were  full  of  foreboding  for  those 
at  Mount  Vernon.  In  the  spring  Lawrence  felt  obliged 
to  resign  his  commission  as  adjutant  and  succeeded  in 
having  George  appointed  in  his  stead. 

So  at  nineteen  and  at  Mount  Vernon  began  his  mili- 
tary career.  "He  now  set  about  preparing  himself, 
with  his  usual  method  and  assiduity,"  says  Washington 
Irving,  "for  his  new  duties.  Virginia  had  among  its 
floating  population  some  military  relics  of  the  late 
Spanish  war.  Among  them  was  a  certain  Adjutant 
Muse,  a  Westmoreland  volunteer,  who  had  served  with 
Lawrence  Washington  in  the  campaigns  in  the  West 
Indies,  and  had  been  with  him  in  the  attack  on  Car- 
thagena.  He  now  undertook  to  instruct  George  in  the 
arts  of  war,  lent  him  treatises  on  military  tactics,  put 
him  through  the  manual  exercises,  and  gave  him  some 
idea  of  evolutions  in  the  field.  Another  of  Lawrence's 
campaigning  comrades  was  Jacob  Van  Bramm,  a 
Dutchman  by  birth,  a  soldier  of  fortune  of  the  Delgatty 
order;  who  had  been  in  the  British  army,  but  was  now 
out  of  service,  and,  professing  to  be  a  complete  master 
of  fence,  recruited  his  purse  in  this  time  of  military  ex- 
citement, by  giving  the  Virginian  youth  lessons  in  the 
sword  exercise.  Under  the  instructions  of  these 
veterans,  Mount  Vernon,  from  being  a  quiet  rural  re- 
treat, where  Washington,  three  years  previously,  had 
indited  love  ditties  to  his  'lowland  beauty,'  was  sud- 
denly transformed  into  a  school  of  arms,  as  he  practised 


THE   RUINS   OF   THK   OLD   TOMB 

Which   (Jeorge  Washington  built  as  executor  of  his  half-brother  Lawrence's  will 

and  in  which  the  (ieneral  and  other  members  of  the  family  were  buried  until 

the  Xe\v  Tomb  was  finished  in  1831.     From  an  original  pencil  sketch 

made  on  the  spot  in  1840  now  in  the  Library  of  Congress 


THE  OLD   TOMB 
Restored  in  1887,  as  it  appears  to-day 


MOUNT  VERNON  33 

the  manual  exercise  with  Adjutant  Muse,  or  took  lessons 
on  the  broadsword  with  Van  Bramm." 

Lawrence  remained  at  home  during  the  warm  Vir- 
ginia summer,  but,  as  the  autumn  approached,  he  was 
advised  to  seek  a  change.  Barbadoes,  the  most  easterly 
of  all  the  West  Indies,  was  selected  as  a  healthy  and 
agreeable  resort,  and  thither  he  sailed  the  middle  of 
September.  His  wife  had  a  baby  less  than  a  year  old  in 
her  arms,  and  in  her  stead  George  accompanied  his 
brother  on  the  stout  sailing  vessel  which  carried  them 
the  length  of  the  Spanish  Main,  consuming,  in  the 
leisurely  fashion  of  wind-driven  travel,  over  six  weeks 
from  the  Potomac  to  Barbadoes. 

This  was  not  the  first  time  a  Washington  set  foot  on 
this  island.  Another  of  this  name,  some  say  John,  the 
Emigrant,  great-grandfather  of  the  two  young  travellers, 
stopped  here  on  his  way  from  England  to  Virginia,  nearly 
a  hundred  years  before,  in  1658.  This,  however,  was 
the  only  time  that  George  Washington  went  outside  the 
confines  of  his  own  country. 

The  two  brothers  were  apparently  much  missed  at 
Mount  Vernon,  and  Lawrence  felt  keenly  the  separation 
from  his  wife.  He  decided  to  remove  to  Bermuda  for  the 
spring  and  dispatched  George  home  to  get  Mrs.  Washing- 
ton and  bring  her  to  him  there.  George  "embarked  on 
the  Industry,  Captn  Saunders,"  for  Virginia  on  Decem- 
ber 12th,  only  a  few  days  after  his  release  from  the 
quarantine  imposed  on  him  by  an  attack  of  smallpox. 
He  reached  home  through  pounding  seas  on  the  1st  of 
February. 

For  some  reason  Lawrence's  wife  did  not  leave  home. 
It  was  a  trying  springtime  at  Mount  Vernon.  George 


34  MOUNT  VERNON 

had  not  brought  encouraging  news  from  the  invalid. 
Soon  significant  letters  came  from  Bermuda,  tempering 
the  edge  of  their  surprise  when  Lawrence  hurried  home 
"in  time  to  die  under  his  own  roof,  surrounded  by  his 
family  and  friends,"  the  26th  of  July,  1752. 

This  was  the  first  poignant  sorrow  of  George's  life. 
He  had  been  really  too  young  to  realize  his  loss  when  his 
father  died,  and  Lawrence  meant  more  to  his  sum  of 
happiness,  experience,  and  advancement  than  any  other 
member  of  the  family.  George  looked  up  to  him  with 
affection  and  confidence.  His  brother's  death  was,  in- 
deed, one  of  the  crucial  events  of  his  life.  It  placed 
him  in  a  position  of  independence  and  responsibility. 
Henceforward  he  walked  alone.  It  marked  his  tran- 
sition from  boyhood  to  manhood. 

They  laid  Lawrence  by  the  side  of  his  three  infant 
children  in  the  family  burying  ground  on  the  estate.  He 
seems,  however,  to  have  felt  the  need  of  something  more 
ambitious  and  permanent,  for  in  his  will  he  directed 
"that  a  proper  vault,  for  interment,  may  be  made  on  my 
home  plantation,  wherein  my  remains  together  with  my 
three  children  may  be  decently  placed;  and  to  serve  for 
my  wife,  and  such  other  members  of  my  family  as  may 
desire  it." 

As  executor  of  his  brother's  will,  George  faithfully  ful- 
filled this  wish.  He  built  the  vault  on  the  brow  of  the 
hill  about  two  hundred  yards  south  of  the  house  and  in 
plain  view  of  the  south  windows.  It  was  built  of  brick 
and  sandstone  and  survives  to-day,  with  its  arched  en- 
trance over  oak  doors.  It  sinks  into  the  green  bank  in 
such  a  way  that  it  seems  a  part  of  the  hillside.  There 
Lawrence  and  his  children  were  laid,  and  it  received  and 


MOUNT  VERNON  35 

held  the  remains  of  the  family  who  died  at  Mount 
Vernon  for  nearly  one  hundred  years. 

The  disposition  of  Mount  Vernon  was  partially  pro- 
vided for  in  the  will  of  Augustine,  father  of  Lawrence 
and  George,  in  this: 

"Item  Forasmuch  as  my  several  children  in  this  my 
will  .  .  .  cannot  inherit  from  one  another  in  order  to 
make  a  proper  Provision  ag*  their  dying  without  Issue,  It 
is  my  will  and  desire  that  in  Case  my  son  Lawrence 
should  dye  without  heirs  of  his  body  Lawfully  begotten 
that  then  the  Land  and  the  Mill  given  him  by  this  my 
Will  lying  in  the  County  of  Prince  William  shall  go  &  re- 
main to  my  son  George  and  his  heirs.'* 

Lawrence  in  his  will  expressed  his  "will  and  desire" 
that  his  wife  should  have  the  "benefits  and  profits"  of 
Mount  Vernon  estate  during  her  lifetime.  To  his 
daughter  Sarah,  who  at  the  time  of  his  death  was  less 
than  a  year  old,  he  did  "give  and  bequeath"  all  his  real 
and  personal  estate  in  Virginia  and  Maryland  "not 
otherwise  disposed  of,"  which  included  Mount  Vernon. 
But  in  case  his  daughter  died  without  issue  he  gave 
"unto  my  loving  brother  George  Washington"  all  his 
lands  in  Fairfax  (formerly  a  part  of  Prince  William) 
County. 

Little  Sarah  died  in  September.  Anne  was  welcome 
in  the  house  which  now  virtually  belonged  to  her 
brother-in-law,  but  it  had  been  a  home  of  disappoint- 
ment, suffering,  and  grief,  and  she  preferred  to  return  to 
Belvoir.  She  seems  to  have  enjoyed  the  "benefits  and 
profits"  of  Mount  Vernon,  for,  soon  after  this,  having 


36  MOUNT  VERNON 

married  George  Lee,  the  uncle  of  Charles  and  Richard 
Lee,  her  husband  joined  her  in  a  deed  to  George  which 
indicates  that  her  young  brother-in-law  bought  her  life 
interest: 

"We  the  parties  of  the  first  part  grant  to  the  party  of 
the  second  part  the  life  interest  of  Ann  Lee,  widow  of 
Lawrence  Washington,  in  two  parcels  of  land,  one 
situated  on  Little  Hunting  Creek,  the  other  on  Dogue 
Creek  in  Fairfax,  of  which  Lawrence  Washington  died 
seized,  also  one  Water  Grist  Mill,  also  certain  Slaves  — in 
consideration  that  Geo  Washington  during  the  natural 
life  of  Ann  Lee,  do  each  year  pay  to  her  husband,  Geo 
Lee — on  the  25th  of  December,  the  sum  or  quantity  of 
fifteen  thousand  pounds  of  tobacco  in  fifteen  hogsheads, 
to  be  delivered  at  one  or  some  of  the  Warehouses  in  the 
Co  of  Fairfax,  or  as  much  current  money  of  Virginia  in 
lieu  thereof?  as  will  be  equal  thereto  at  twelve  (12) 
shillings  &  six  pence  current  money,  for  every  hundred 
weight  of  tobacco." 

Thus  George,  heir  to  Mount  Vernon  and  executor  of 
his  brother's  will,  at  twenty,  wisely  completed  his  title 
to  his  estate. 


CHAPTER  IV 

Absences  from  Home — Military  Expeditions  to  the  Ohio-^-Mary 
Washington's  Last  Visit  to  Mount  Vernon — Organizing  the 
Household — Political  Aspirations — John  Augustine  Wash- 
ington the  First  Manager — Off  to  the  West  with  Braddock — 
Military  Career  Unremunerative — Home  with  Extended 
Fame,  General  Braddock's  Battle  Charger  and  Bishop — Wo- 
men Who  Might  Have  Been  Mistress  of  Mount  Vernon — 
Washington  Made  Commander  of  All  Virginia  Troops — A 
Winter's  Illness  at  Mount  Vernon,  Not  Without  Compensa- 
tion. 

THE  story  of  Mount  Vernon  during  the  next 
seven  years  is  not  notably  eventful.  Its  new 
master  was  a  bachelor,  the  leading  strings  of 
his  developing  career  drew  him  easily  away  from  his 
home,  and  he  has  not  left  in  his  letters  evidence  that  he 
was  even  preparing  to  organize  his  estate  into  anything 
approaching  the  perfected  condition  which  it  reached 
later  and  which  became  the  wonder  and  the  admiration, 
and  in  some  degree  perhaps  the  despair,  of  those  who  ap- 
preciated what  he  overcame  in  meagre  resources  and 
service. 

He  was  a  constant  visitor  to  the  Fairfaxes  at  Belvoir, 
to  George  Mason's  family  at  Gunston  Hall,  and  to  the 
Ewells  of  Belle  Aire,  where  he  often  stopped  on  his  way 
to  see  his  mother  and  sister  Betty  at  Fredericksburg  and 
to  keep  in  touch  with  others  of  the  family  thereabouts. 
On  the  4th  of  November,  1752,  he  was  initiated  into  the 
secrets  of  Masonry  at  Fredericksburg,  though  later  he 

37 

186466 


38  MOUNT  VERNON 

affiliated  with  the  lodge  at  Alexandria,  so  much  more 
conveniently  near  his  home. 

A  mistress  for  Mount  Vernon  was  continually  in  his 
thoughts.  Women  had  a  great  attraction  for  him  from 
his  earliest  youth.  His  early  diaries  and  letters  are  full 
of  sentimental  confidences. 

Perhaps  at  this  time  his  attack  of  "pleurise"  had 
passed  and  he  continued  on  down  to  the  lower  tidewater 
home  of  Betsy  Fauntleroy,  as  he  promised  her  father  in 
this  letter  of  the  previous  May: 

" SIR:  I  should  have  been  down  long  before  this,  but 
my  business  in  Frederick  detained  me  somewhat  longer 
than  I  expected,  and  immediately  upon  my  return  from 
thence  I  was  taken  with  a  violent  pleurise,  which  has 
reduced  me  very  low;  but  purpose,  as  soon  as  I  recover 
my  strength,  to  wait  on  Miss  Betsy,  in  hopes  of  a 
revocation  of  the  former  cruel  sentence,  and  see  if  I 
can  meet  with  any  alteration  in  my  favor.  I  have 
enclosed  a  letter  to  her,  which  should  be  much  obliged 
to  you  for  the  delivery  of  it.  I  have  nothing  to  add 
but  my  best  respects  to  your  good  lady  and  family." 

Betsy,  however,  seems  to  have  been  unwilling  to 
revoke  her  "former  cruel  sentence,"  and  so  his  de- 
tached domestic  situation  made  it  easier  to  accept 
Governor  Dinwiddie's  difficult  commission  to  bear  his 
protest  to  the  encroaching  French  on  the  far  western 
frontier  of  the  Ohio.  It  may  almost  be  believed  that 
for  the  next  two  years  he  made  no  effort  to  keep  Mount 
Vernon  in  commission  as  a  place  of  residence,  for  he 
frequently  passed  it  by  on  his  way  between  Alexandria 


MOUNT  VERNON  39 

and  Fredericksburg  without  mention  of  visiting  his  es- 
tate, though  the  highroad  ran  near  his  western  boundary. 

In  his  diary  of  the  Ohio  expedition  in  1753  he  begins 
by  noting:  "I  arrived  [November  1st]  at  Fredericks- 
burg  and  engaged  Mr.  Jacob  Vanbramm,  to  be  my 
French  interpreter;  and  proceeded  with  him  to  Alex- 
andria, where  we  provided  Necessaries.  From  thence 
we  went  to  Winchester"  This  diary  of  his  two  months' 
absence  draws  to  a  close  with  this  note,  of  January, 
1754:  "On  the  llth  I  got  to  Belvoir:  where  I  stopped 
one  Day  to  take  necessary  Rest;  and  then  set  out  and 
arrived  in  Williarnsburg  the  16th." 

On  these  occasions  he  was  within  two  miles  of  his 
own  house.  Yet  it  is  scarcely  to  be  believed  that  he 
crossed  over  even  while  stopping  the  day  at  Belvoir, 
for  in  mid-January  boating  on  tidewater  Potomac 
is  made  treacherous  by  cold  high  winds  sweeping  down 
the  "creeks"  when  the  river  is  not  actually  impassable  by 
reason  of  the  ice  which  sometimes  grips  its  entire  sur- 
face. 

Soon  after  his  return  from  the  West  he  was  commis- 
sioned Lieutenant  Colonel  and  ordered  to  return  to  the 
Ohio  in  command  of  a  military  expedition  which  Gov- 
ernor Dinwiddie  sent  at  the  end  of  March  "to  aid 
Captain  Trench  in  building  Forts  and  in  defending  the 
Possessions  of  his  Majesty  against  the  attempts  and 
hostilities  of  the  French."  It  was  the  beginning  of  the 
Seven  Years'  War. 

"It  was  strange  that  in  a  savage  forest  of  Pennsyl- 
vania," says  Thackeray  in  "The  Virginians,"  "a  young 
Virginian  officer  should  fire  a  shot  and  waken  up  a  war 
which  was  to  last  for  sixty  years,  which  was  to  cover  his 


40  MOUNT  VERNON 

own  country  and  pass  into  Europe,  to  cost  France  her 
American  colonies,  to  sever  ours  from  us,  and  create 
the  great  Western  Republic;  to  rage  over  the  Old 
World  when  extinguished  in  the  New;  and,  of  all  the 
myriads  engaged  in  the  vast  contest,  to  leave  the  prize 
of  the  greatest  fame  with  him  who  struck  the  first 
blow!" 

Washington  fought  through  the  summer  in  the  West, 
but  a  military  order  from  Dinwiddie  made  it  impossible 
for  him  to  serve  longer  with  self-respect.  He  resigned 
his  commission  and  returned  to  Mount  Vernon,  where 
he  arrived  in  October,  remaining  almost  continuously 
until  March. 

Whatever  his  other  occupations  during  the  winter, 
he  seems  not  to  have  been  free  of  his  chronic  entangle- 
ment of  the  heart,  for  a  friend,  one  of  the  officers  at 
WTilliamsburg,  wrote  him: 

"I  imagine  you  by  this  time  plung'd  in  the  midst  of 
delight  heaven  can  afford  and  enchanted  By  Charmes 
even  Stranger  to  the  Cyprian  Dame."  (Mrs.  Neil.) 

The  arrival  of  the  spring  of  1755  seems  to  have  found 
some  sort  of  menage  established  in  the  house,  for,  hav- 
ing been  invited  by  General  Braddock  to  accompany  his 
expedition  to  the  West,  he  writes  from  home,  in  a  letter 
to  Orme,  the  General's  Aide-de-Camp : 

"The  arrival  of  a  good  deal  of  company  (among 
whom  is  my  mother,  alarmed  at  the  report  of  my  in- 
tentions to  attend  your  fortunes)  prevents  me  the 
pleasure  of  waiting  on  you  to-day,  as  I  had  intended." 


MOUNT  VERNON  41 

This  was  Mary  Washington's  last  appearance  at 
Mount  Vernon.  She  retired  to  Fredericksburg,  where 
she  spent  the  rest  of  her  days,  at  first  at  her  farm  across 
the  Rappahannock  but,  later,  near  her  daughter  Betty 
Lewis'  "Kenmore,"  in  the  centre  of  the  little  city,  in  a 
house  which  her  son  George  bought  for  her.  He 
visited  her  whenever  he  passed  through  Fredericks- 
burg  and  wrote  to  her  always  with  high  but  somewhat 
formal  affection. 

Though  this  visit  to  Mount  Vernon,  to  persuade  her 
son  to  keep  out  of  the  military  service,  was  her  last 
appearance  there,  it  was  not  her  last  protest  on  this 
same  score.  In  August  she  besought  him  again  not  to 
endanger  his  life  in  farther  armed  exploits.  He  re- 
plied from  Mount  Vernon: 

"HONORED  MADAM, 

"If  it  is  in  my  power  to  avoid  going  to  the  Ohio  again, 
I  shall;  but  if  the  command  is  pressed  upon  me,  by 
the  general  voice  of  the  country,  and  offered  upon  such 
terms  as  cannot  be  objected  against,  it  would  reflect 
dishonor  upon  me  to  refuse;  and  that,  I  am  sure,  must 
or  ought  to  give  you  greater  uneasiness,  than  my  going 
in  an  honorable  command,  for  upon  no  other  terms  will 
I  accept  of  it.  At  present  I  have  no  proposals  made  to 
me,  nor  have  I  any  advice  of  such  an  intention,  except 
from  private  hands." 

In  the  letter  to  Orme  quoted  above  he  said  of  the 
domestic  situation  at  his  home : 

"I  find  myself  much  embarassed  with  my  affairs, 
having  no  person  in  whom  I  can  confide,  to  entrust  the 


42  MOUNT  VERNON 

management  of  them  with.  Notwithstanding,  I  am 
determined  to  do  myself  the  honor  of  accompanying 
you,  upon  this  proviso,  that  the  General  will  be  kind 
enough  to  permit  my  return,  as  soon  as  the  active  part 
of  the  campaign  is  at  an  end,  if  it  is  desired;  or,  if 
there  should  be  a  space  of  inaction,  long  enough  to 
admit  a  visit  to  my  home,  that  I  may  be  indulged  in 
coming  to  it." 

Orme  replied : 

"The  General  orders  me  to  give  his  compliments, 
and  to  assure  you  his  wishes  are  to  make  it  agreeable 
to  yourself  and  consistant  with  your  affairs,  and,  there- 
fore, desires  you  will  so  settle  your  business  at  home,  as 
to  join  him  at  Will's  Creek,  if  more  convenient  for  you; 
and,  whenever  you  find  it  necessary  to  return,  he  begs 
you  will  look  upon  yourself  as  entire  master,  and  judge 
what  is  proper  to  be  done." 

Free  to  return  as  necessity  might  compel,  he  prepared 
to  turn  his  back  again  on  the  comforts  and  interests  of 
his  estate.  Three  days  before  setting  out  to  accompany 
Braddock  he  wrote  from  Mount  Vernon,  under  date  of 
May  25,  1755,  to  William  Byrd,  whose  fame  survives, 
not  merely  as  master  of  Westover  on  the  James,  where 
he  gathered  the  finest  library  in  the  colony,  but  as 
"  the  great  Virginia  wit  and  author  of  the  century" : 

"I  am  sorry  it  was  not  in  my  power  to  wait  upon  you 
at  Westover  last  Christmas.  I  enjoyed  much  satis- 
faction in  the  thought  of  doing  it,  when  an  unexpected 
accident  put  it  entirely  out  of  my  power  to  comply 


MOUNT  VERNON  43 

either  with  my  promise  or  inclination,  both  of  which 
prompted  me  to  make  the  visit. 

"I  am  now  preparing  for,  and  shall  in  a  few  days  set 
off,  to  serve  in  the  ensuing  campaign,  with  different 
views,  however,  from  those  I  had  before.  For  here, 
if  I  gain  any  credit,  or  if  I  am  entitled  to  the  least  coun- 
tenance or  esteem,  it  must  be  from  serving  my  country 
without  fee  or  reward;  for  I  can  truly  say,  I  have  no 
expectation  of  either.  To  merit  its  esteem,  and  the 
good  will  of  my  friends,  is  the  sum  of  my  ambition, 
having  no  prospect  of  attaining  a  commission,  being 
well  assured  it  is  not  in  Gen'l.  Braddock's  power  to 
give  such  an  one  as  I  would  accept  of.  The  command 
of  a  Company  is  the  highest  commission  vested  in  his 
gift.  He  was  so  obliging  as  to  desire  my  company  this 
campaign,  has  honored  me  with  particular  marks  of 
his  esteem,  and  kindly  invited  me  into  his  family — a 
circumstance  which  will  ease  me  of  expenses  that 
otherwise  must  have  accrued  in  furnishing  stores,  camp 
equipage,  &c,  whereas  the  cost  will  now  be  easy  (com- 
paritively  speaking)  as  baggage,  horses,  tents,  and  some 
other  necessaries,  will  constitute  the  whole  of  the  charge. 

"Yet  to  have  a  family  just  settling,  and  in  the  con- 
fusion and  disorder  mine  is  at  present,  is  not  a  pleasing 
thing  and  may  be  hurtful.  Be  this  as  it  may,  it  shall  be 
no  hindrance  to  my  making  this  campaign." 

The  "family  just  settling"  was  that  of  his  younger 
and  favorite  brother,  John  Augustine,  father  of  the 
next  owner  of  Mount  Vernon.  He  wrote  his  brother 
frequently  during  his  absence,  usually  subscribing 
himself,  "Dear  Jack,  your  most  affectionate  Brother." 


44  MOUNT  VERNON 

In  an  early  letter  George  expresses  the  hope  that  his 
brother  "will  have  frequent  opportunities  to  particu- 
larize the  state  of  my  affairs,  which  will  administer 
much  satisfaction  to  a  person  in  my  situation." 

In  another  he  indicates  his  first  interest  in  politics: 

"As  I  understand  the  County  of  Fairfax  is  to  be 
divided,  and  that  Mr.  Alexander  intends  to  decline 
serving  it.  I  should  be  glad  if  you  would  come  to 
Colo.  Fairfax's  intentions,  and  let  me  know  whether 
he  purposes  to  offer  himself  as  a  candidate.  If  he 
does  not,  I  should  be  glad  to  take  a  poll,  if  I  thought  my 
chances  tolerably  good. 

"Majr.  Carlyle  mentioned  it  to  me  in  Williamsburg 
in  a  bantering  way,  and  asked  how  I  would  like  it, 
saying,  at  the  same  time,  he  did  not  know  but  they 
might  send  me,  when  I  might  know  nothing  of  the 
matter,  for  one  or  t'other  of  the  counties.  I  must 
confess  I  should  like  to  go  for  either  in  that  manner, 
but  more  particularly  for  Fairfax,  as  I  am  a  resident 
there." 

His  reply  to  John  Augustine,  on  receiving  the  report 
of  his  own  death,  is  one  of  the  evidences  that  he  was 
not  without  a  healthy  humor  when  he  chose  to  disclose 
it:  "As  I  have  heard,  since  my  arrival  at  this  place,  a 
circumstantial  account  of  my  death  and  dying  speech, 
I  take  this  early  opportunity  of  contradicting  the  first, 
and  of  assuring  you,  that  I  have  not  as  yet  composed 
the  latter." 

The  fruit  of  the  sacrifices  he  made  in  his  absences 
from  Mount  Vernon,  during  the  three  years  since  it 


MOUNT  VERNON  45 

became  his,  he  sums  up  vigorously  to  his  half-brother, 
Augustine,  on  his  return  from  the  Braddock  campaign 
at  the  end  of  July : 

"I  was  employed  to  go  on  a  journey  in  the  winter 
(when,  I  believe,  few  or  none  would  have  undertaken 
it),  and  what  did  I  get  by  it?  My  expenses  borne!  I 
then  was  appointed,  with  trifling  pay,  to  conduct  a 
handful  of  men  to  the  Ohio.  What  did  I  get  by  this? 
Why,  after  putting  myself  to  a  considerable  expense,  in 
equipping  and  providing  necessaries  for  the  campaign,  I 
went  out,  was  soundly  beaten,  lost  them  all ! — came  in 
and  had  my  commission  taken  from  me,  or,  in  other 
words,  my  command  reduced,  under  pretence  of  an  order 
from  home !  I  then  went  out  a  volunteer  with  General 
Braddock,  and  lost  all  my  horses  and  many  other  things; 
but  this  being  a  voluntary  act,  I  ought  not  to  have 
mentioned  this;  nor  should  I  have  done  it,  was  it  not  to 
show  that  I  have  been  upon  the  losing  order  ever  since  I 
entered  the  service,  which  is  now  near  two  years.  So 
that  I  think  I  cannot  be  blamed,  should  I,  if  I  leave  my 
family  again,  endeavor  to  do  it  upon  terms  as  to  prevent 
suffering;  (to  gain  by  it  being  the  least  of  my  expecta- 
tion)." 

Futile  and  tragic  as  had  been  Braddock's  whole  cam- 
paign, Washington  came  out  of  it  with  added  distinc- 
tion. An  amusing  and  intimate  proof  of  this  is  found  in 
a  note  which  was  brought  to  Mount  Vernon  the  day 
after  his  arrival.  The  master  of  Belvoir  wrote  begging 
his  appearance  at  his  house  on  Sunday,  intimating  that 
if  he  did  not  come,  "the  Lady's  will  try  to  get  Horses  to 


46  MOUNT  VERNON 

equip  our  Chair  or  attempt  their  strength  on  Foot  to 
Salute  you,  so  desirous  are  they  with  loving  Speed  to 
have  an  occular  Demonstration  of  your  being  the  same 
Identical  Gent — that  lately  departed  to  defend  his 
Country's  Cause." 

With  this  arrived  the  following  appeal  signed  by  Sally 
Fairfax,  Ann  Spearing,  and  Elizabeth  Dent: 

"DEAR  SIR:  After  thanking  Heaven  for  your  safe 
return  I  must  accuse  you  of  great  unkindness  in  refusing 
us  the  pleasure  of  seeing  you  this  night.  I  do  assure  you 
that  nothing  but  our  being  satisfied  that  our  company 
would  be  disagreeable  should  prevent  us  from  trying  if 
our  Legs  would  carry  us  to  Mount  Vernon  this  night,  but 
if  you  will  not  come  to  us  to-morrow  morning  very  early 
we  shall  be  at  Mount  Vernon." 

There  was  another  Sally  Fairfax  besides  the  signer  of 
the  Belvoir  round-robin.  She  was  born  Cary  and  was 
the  wife  of  George's  friend,  George  William  Fairfax.  If 
George  had  had  his  way  she  would  have  succeeded  Ann 
as  chatelaine  of  Mount  Vernon.  However,  he  was  a 
persevering  lover  and  is  said  to  have  proposed  at 
varying  times  to  Mary  Cary,  who  afterward  married 
Edward  Ambler;  to  Lucy  Grymes,  who  later  became 
Mrs.  Henry  Lee,  mother  of  "Lighthorse  Harry";  and 
to  Mary  Philipse,  a  New  York  Tory  who  fled  to  Eng- 
land on  the  outbreak  of  hostilities  with  the  mother 
country. 

Accompanying  Washington  to  Mount  Vernon  on  his 
return  from  the  Braddock  expedition  was  a  servant 
who  deserves  some  introduction,  for  he  henceforth  be- 


MOUNT  VERNON  47 

came  a  figure  in  his  master's  life  and  one  of  the  historic 
characters  of  his  home. 

His  name  was  Bishop.  He  was  an  English  soldier 
who  accompanied  Braddock  to  America.  The  General 
observed  superior  qualities  in  the  man  and  made  him  his 
military  servant.  When  Braddock  fell  he  made  some 
effort  to  repair  his  neglect  of  the  young  Virginia 
Colonel's  sound  advice.  The  dying  soldier  presented 
his  battle  charger  to  Washington,  the  only  one  of  four  he 
rode  in  the  fatal  battle  of  the  Monongahela  to  survive, 
and  he  commended  to  his  service  and  care  the  faithful 
Bishop.  The  two  rode  together  across  the  mountains 
to  Mount  Vernon  and  only  once  afterward  did  Bishop 
leave  the  neighborhood  except  to  accompany  his 
master. 

A  proof  of  the  colony's  appreciation  of  Colonel  Wash- 
ington's performance  under  Braddock  came  within  a  few 
months  when  there  arrived  at  Mount  Vernon  his  com- 
mission as  commander  of  all  the  Virginia  forces.  He 
was  soon  off,  and  during  the  two  years  following  he  was 
rarely  at  home. 

In  August  of  the  next  year,  1756,  however,  he  pe- 
titioned the  Governor  for  leave  to  return  to  the  Poto- 
mac, "As  a  general  meeting  of  all  the  persons  concerned 
in  the  estate  of  my  deceased  brother  is  appointed  to  be 
held  at  Alexandria  about  the  middle  of  September  next, 
for  making  a  final  settlement  of  all  his  affairs;  and  as  I 
am  deeply  interested,  not  only  as  an  executor  and  heir 
to  part  of  his  estate,  but  also  in  a  very  important  dis- 
pute, subsisting  between  Colonel  Lee,  who  married 
the  widow,  and  my  brothers  and  self,  concerning 
advice  in  the  will  which  brings  the  whole  personal 


48  MOUNT  VERNON 

estate  in  question."  The  trip  was  in  vain,  "the  As- 
sembly having  called  away  the  principal  persons  con- 
cerned." 

After  another  year  on  the  frontier  he  hurried  back 
again  the  next  September,  1757,  to  attend  the  funeral  of 
"Col.  Fairfax."  It  is  not  surprising  he  should  have 
made  this  long  trip,  under  necessity  of  hurrying  directly 
back,  for  it  was  William  Fairfax  he  came  to  bury, 
father  of  Anne,  the  first  mistress  of  Mount  Vernon, 
the  friend  of  his  earliest  recollections  when  the  two 
families  came  up  river  to  Dogue  Creek  neighborhood 
together. 

His  friends  found  him  somewhat  changed  under 
the  stress  of  his  long  military  campaigns.  Soon  after 
his  return  to  his  service  duties  he  was  stricken  with 
an  illness  which  obliged  him  to  return  home  again, 
where  he  arrived  in  November.  He  was  attended  by 
his  friend,  Charles  Green,  doctor  at  once  of  physic  and 
divinity,  the  Mount  Vernon  family  physician  and  rector 
of  then:  parish  Church  of  Pohick.  Instead  of  abating, 
the  disorder  became  so  aggravated  that  early  in  the 
new  year  Washington  wrote  that  he  had  "too  much 
reason  to  apprehend  an  approaching  decay."  But  good 
Doctor  Green  had  him  up  and  on  his  feet  and  off  again 
before  April. 

Much  of  significance  in  the  story  of  his  home  was  to 
happen  before  Mount  Vernon  saw  him  again.  In  May 
he  hurried  to  Williamsburg  with  his  report  on  affairs  in 
the  West.  He  was  accompanied  by  the  now  inseparable 
Bishop.  On  his  way  to  the  capital,  in  crossing  the  ferry 
over  the  Pamunkey  River,  the  south  branch  of  the 
York,  he  most  miraculously  fell  in  with  "one  Mr. 


MOUNT  VERNON  49 

Chamberlayne,  who  lived  in  the  neighborhood,"  and 
insisted  on  the  traveller  resting  at  his  house  as  his 
guest.  Colonel  Washington  submitted  amiably  to 
being  captured  and  led  off,  but  before  the  day  was  done 
he  had  been  twice  captured. 


CHAPTER  V 

A  Chapter  Wholly  Away  from  Mount  Vernon — Most  Significant 
to  Its  History — Bishop's  Vigil — Dinner  at  Mr.  Chamber- 
layne's — Martha  Dandridge  Custis — Her  Family — Early  Life 
— George  Washington  and  Martha  Custis  Betrothed — Off  to 
the  West — Letters — Restoring  Mount  Vernon  in  Its  Master's 
Absence — The  Wedding — Honeymoon  at  the  Six-chimney 
House  in  Williamsburg — Washington  in  the  House  of  Bur- 
gesses— Bringing  the  Bride  to  Mount  Vernon — Curiosity  of 
the  Neighbors  and  Retainers — The  Arrival — Martha  Wash- 
ington Mistress  of  Mount  Vernon. 

THERE  is  only  one  account  of  that  significant 
day  in  the  life  of  Washington  and  the  future 
mistress  of  Mount  Vernon.     It  is  handed  down 
by  the  grandson  of  "the  charming  widow": 

"The  colonel  was  introduced  to  various  guests  (for 
when  was  a  Virginian  domicil  of  the  olden  time  without 
guests?),  and  above  all,  to  the  charming  widow. 
Tradition  relates  that  they  were  mutually  pleased  on 
this  their  first  interview,  nor  is  it  remarkable;  they 
were  of  an  age  when  impressions  are  strongest.  The 
lady  was  fair  to  behold,  of  fascinating  manners,  and 
splendidly  endowed  with  worldly  benefits.  The  hero, 
fresh  from  his  early  fields,  redolent  of  fame,  and  with  a 
form  on  which  *  every  god  did  seem  to  set  his  seal,  to 
give  the  world  assurance  of  a  man.'  The  morning 
passed  pleasantly  away.  Evening  came,  with  Bishop, 
true  to  his  orders  and  firm  at  his  post,  holding  his 

50 


MOUNT  VERNON  51 

favorite  charger  with  one  hand,  while  the  other  was 
waiting  to  offer  the  ready  stirrup.  The  sun  sank  in  the 
horizon,  and  yet  the  colonel  appeared  not.  And  then 
the  old  soldier  marvelled  at  his  chief's  delay  .  .  . 
for  he  was  the  most  punctual  of  all  men.  Meantime, 
the  host  enjoyed  the  scene  of  the  veteran  at  the  gate, 
while  the  colonel  was  so  agreably  employed  in  the 
parlor;  and  proclaiming  that  no  guest  ever  left  his  house 
after  sunset,  his  military  visitor  was,  without  much  dif- 
ficulty, persuaded  to  order  Bishop  to  put  up  the  horses 
for  the  night.  The  sun  rode  high  in  the  heavens  the 
ensuing  day,  when  the  enamored  soldier  pressed  with  his 
spur  his  charger's  side,  and  speeded  on  his  way  to  the 
seat  of  government." 

The  remarkable  lady  whose  attractions  captivated 
the  marvel  of  punctuality  and  caused  his  servant  a  vain 
vigil  was  Mrs.  Martha  Dandridge  Custis.  Though  this 
is  represented  as  her  " first  interview"  with  Washington, 
it  is  hardly  to  be  believed  that  they  were  unknown  to  each 
other.  Her  town  and  country  houses  were  respectively 
in  and  near  Williamsburg.  Washington  was  in  the  capi- 
tal at  least  twice  every  year  between  October,  1753,  and 
November,  1756,  in  all  on  six  different  occasions.  His 
growing  fame  and  the  official  nature  of  his  visits  to 
Williamsburg  made  him  a  conspicuous  figure  even  now 
in  his  twenty-sixth  year.  In  this  instance  introduction 
was  a  shallow  formality. 

Martha  Custis  was  one  of  the  most  'admired  young 
matrons  in  lower  tidewater.  She  was  Washington's 
junior  by  a  few  months.  Her  girlhood  home  was  in 
New  Kent  at  the  head  of  the  York  River.  The  social 


52  MOUNT  VERNON 

life  of  the  young  women  of  that  time  began  at  an  age  al- 
most inconceivable  now,  so  it  is  small  wonder  to  read 
that,  when  according  to  modern  ideas  she  should  have 
been  in  the  nursery,  or  at  most  in  the  school-room,  she 
was  "presented"  in  Williamsburg  "during  the  admin- 
istration of  Governor  Gooch."  There's  a  whole  pan- 
orama in  the  phrase,  for  in  the  picturesqueness  of  bro- 
cade and  laces,  jewels  and  smallswords,  powdered 
coiffures  and  tie-back  wigs,  indeed  in  all  the  formality  of 
manner  and  observance,  the  Royal  Governors  in  the 
Colony  of  Virginia  held  a  veritable  court. 

When  sixteen  Martha  Dandridge  engaged  the  at- 
tentions of  Daniel  Parke  Custis,  in  point  of  antecedents 
and  personal  character  one  of  the  most  desirable  bache- 
lors in  their  neighborhood,  in  the  large  sense  of  the  far- 
flung  neighborhood  of  those  days.  At  seventeen  she 
became  his  bride.  They  were  married  one  June  day 
in  1749,  at  St.  Peter's  Church,  near  the  White  House, 
their  home  in  New  Kent.  Vaughan  Kester,  in  "The 
Prodigal  Judge,"  hints  amusingly  at  the  tradition  that 
the  titles  of  the  old-time  Southern  planters  might  be 
read  in  the  number  of  chimneys  on  their  houses.  If, 
as  his  Yancy  said  they  did,  two  chimneys  breveted  a  man 
colonel  and  four  raised  him  to  the  rank  of  general, 
what  shall  be  said  of  the  magnificent  rank  of  a  man 
whose  house  stood  supported  by  six  chimneys?  The 
Williamsburg  house  of  the  Custises  was  known  as  the 
Six-chimney  House.  Between  the  two  homes  they 
spent  the  eight  years  of  their  married  life.  Two  chil- 
dren, John  Parke  and  Martha,  survived  their  father. 
Their  mother,  widowed  at  the  age  of  twenty-five,  was 
in  her  own  right  one  of  the  rich  women  of  the  colony. 


GEORGE  WASHINGTON  IN  THE  UNIFORM  OF  A   VIRGINIA  COLONEL 

From  the  portrait  by  Charles  VVillson  Peale  painted  at  Mount  Vernon  in  1774  and 
now  hanging  in  Washington  and  Lee  University,  Lexington,  Virginia      (See  p.  1 14.) 


MOUNT  VERNON  53 

The  day  after  her  first  meeting  with  Washington  he 
rode  gayly  forward  to  the  Capital  and  represented 
"the  fortunes  of  our  officers  at  Winchester"  with  all 
possible  speed,  for  there  was  a  strong  lure  in  his  heart 
and  he  hastened  his  return  overland  to  the  White 
House  on  the  Pamunkey  for  his  second  meeting  with 
pretty  Mrs.  Custis.  His  entire  stay  in  the  East  was 
brief;  not  more  than  a  fortnight,  it  is  said.  But  when 
he  turned  his  horse's  head  westward  early  in  June  and 
began  his  journey  back  to  the  mountains,  he  took  with 
him  the  promise  which  insured  Mount  Vernon  a  mis- 
tress as  soon  as  he  could  conclude  his  military  service 
and  come  and  bear  her  away  to  his  home  at  the  head 
of  tidewater  Potomac. 

The  mails  in  those  days  were  irregular  and  uncertain, 
even  over  the  well-travelled  coastwise  highways.  The 
carriage  of  letters  to  and  from  the  frontier,  as  anything 
beyond  the  Shenandoah  Valley  was  called  at  that  time, 
must  have  been  quite  irresponsible  enough  to  try  the 
two  lovers'  souls.  Yet  what  messages  passed  between 
them  then  or  afterward  was  made  a  secret  forever  when 
later  Martha  destroyed  the  letters  she  had  from  George. 
By  some  chance  at  least  one  escaped  and  is  preserved. 
It  is  of  this  period  of  their  engagement,  and  was  sent  her 
as  he  was  putting  added  miles  of  uncertain  wilderness 
between  them.  Self-possession  was  characteristic  of 
Washington,  as  boy  and  as  man,  but  there  is  a  gravity  in 
this  letter  which,  coupled  with  its  tenderness,  indicates 
apprehension  for  his  issue  from  this  military  expedition : 

"We  have  begun  our  march  for  the  Ohio.  A  courier 
is  starting  for  Williamsburg,  and  I  embrace  the  op- 


54  MOUNT  VERNON 

portunity  to  send  a  few  words  to  one  whose  life  is  now 
inseparable  from  mine.  Since  that  happy  hour  when 
we  made  our  pledges  to  each  other,  my  thoughts  have 
been  continually  going  to  you  as  another  Self.  That 
an  all-powerful  Providence  may  keep  us  both  in  safety 
is  the  prayer  of  your  ever  faithful  and  affectionate 
friend." 

An  entire  other  mood  is  reflected  in  the  letter  written 
James  Wood  about  the  same  time,  when  Washington 
heard  that  he  was  elected  to  the  House  of  Burgesses: 

"If  thanks  flowing  from  a  heart  replete  with  joy  and 
Gratitude  can  in  any  Measure  compensate  for  the 
fatigue,  anxiety  and  Pain  you  had  at  my  Election,  be 
assured  you  have  them;  'tis  a  poor,  but  I  am  convinced, 
welcome  tribute  to  a  generous  Mind.  Such,  I  believe 
yours  to  be.  How  shall  I  thank  Mrs.  Wood  for  her 
favorable  Wishes,  and  how  acknowledge  my  sense  of 
obligations  to  the  People  in  general  for  their  choice 
of  me,  I  am  at  a  loss  to  resolve  on.  But  why?  Can  I 
do  it  more  effectually  than  by  making  their  Interest 
(as  it  really  is)  my  own,  and  doing  everything  that 
lyes  in  my  little  Power  for  the  Honor  and  welfare  of 
the  Country?  I  think  not;  and  my  best  endeavors 
they  may  always  command.  I  promise  this  now,  when 
promises  may  be  regarded,  before  they  might  pass  as 
words  of  course." 

Washington's  great-grandfather,  John  the  Emi- 
grant, his  own  father  and  his  half-brother  Lawrence, 
sat  in  the  lower  house  of  the  Assembly  at  Williamsburg. 


MOUNT  VERNON  55 

It  has  been  seen  how  three  years  before  he  wrote  his 
brother  John  at  Mount  Vernon  of  his  willingness  to 
put  his  name  up  for  election  to  represent  his  home 
county  of  Fairfax,  if  his  chances  were  "tolerably  good." 
When  the  call  did  come  it  was  not  from  Fairfax  but 
from  Frederick,  his  headquarters  during  many  months 
of  his  military  service  on  the  frontier.  From  this 
time  he  held  his  seat  as  Burgess  consecutively  for  nearly 
fifteen  years.  Until  1765  he  represented  Frederick 
County,  and  after  that  until  the  outbreak  of  the  Rev- 
olution he  was  returned  by  Fairfax  County. 

One  of  Washington's  first  thoughts  after  the  happy 
conclusion  of  his  sentimental  errand  to  the  White  House 
was  of  the  future  home  of  the  bride.  Mount  Vernon 
in  1758  was  substantially  as  when  built  except  that  it 
was  the  worse  for  fifteen  or  more  years  of  wear.  Though 
absent  on  the  frontier,  Washington  wrote  directions 
for  a  thorough  renovation  of  the  villa,  as  it  was  called 
at  the  time. 

His  brother  John  had  moved  from  the  estate.  The 
house  was  empty.  Reports  of  the  progress  of  the  im- 
provements sent  him  from  Mount  Vernon  show  that 
Humphrey  Knight  was  in  charge  of  the  farms,  WTilliam 
Poole  operated  the  mill  when  there  was  water  in  the 
branch  to  turn  the  wheel,  and  the  rebuilding  of  the 
house  was  pushed  forward  by  John  Patterson.  From 
time  to  time  George  William  Fairfax  came  over  from 
Belvoir,  overlooked  the  work  of  Patterson  and  the 
carpenters,  supplied  hewed  and  sawed  lumber  from 
his  stock  when  Washington's  was  delayed  in  coming 
from  other  directions,  and  wrote  him  frequent  neigh- 
borly letters  about  the  details  of  the  rebuilding  project. 


56  MOUNT  VERNON 

The  house  seems  not  to  have  been  enlarged  at  this 
time,  but  it  was  thoroughly  rebuilt,  inside  and  out. 
Fifteen  thousand  bricks  were  burned  on  the  place,  the 
house  was  raised  on  its  foundations  and  new  founda- 
tions were  placed  under  it.  New  weather-boarding, 
newly  painted,  freshened  up  the  outside;  the  windows 
were  all  reglazed ;  and  new  sheathing  and  shingles  went 
on  to  the  roof.  Inside  there  was  a  deal  of  ripping  out 
of  old  plaster  and  laying  on  of  new,  closets  were  built 
in,  and  the  floors  upstairs  and  the  stairway  into  the 
attic  gave  Colonel  Fairfax  and  Patterson  much  con- 
cern. 

"For  with  regard  to  the  Garrett  Stairs,"  wrote  Col. 
Fairfax,  "I  am  at  a  loss  unless  I  know  whether  you 
intend  that  for  Lodging  Apartments  for  Serv18.  If  not 
the  Stairs  may  be  carried  from  the  left  hand  room, 
which  you  design  for  Lumber,  without  making  it 
publick."  Considering  the  dilemma  of  whether  to 
plane  down  the  old  floors  or  to  lay  new  ones,  Patterson 
wrote  with  an  indication  of  honesty:  "Its  just  y^  Nail 
holes  of  y^  latter,  looks  but  indifferent,  but  y^  Joynts 
makes  amends  for  that;  &  in  me  would  be  base  to  take 
it  up,  when  I  am  confident,  its  not  in  my  power  to 
lay  a  better  one,  y*  Stuff  of  it  being  dry,  &  when  playnd 
over  will  have  much  a  better  look."  But  in  spite  of 
this  Colonel  Fairfax  decided  on  new  floors  and  the 
planks  were  sent  over  from  Belvoir. 

Two  new  small  houses  were  built  at  this  time.  In 
the  absence  of  any  written  evidence  of  where  they  stood, 
it  is  easy  to  locate  them  by  regular  and  identical  sub- 
merged foundations,  below  the  present  turf,  at  equal 
distances  from  the  west  front,  and  equidistant  from  the 


MOUNT  VERNON  57 

front  door.  The  little  houses  were  razed  when  later 
the  additions  were  made  to  the  villa  and  the  curved 
colonnades  were  flung  out  at  either  end .  The  submerged 
foundations  define  the  little  houses  of  this  time  as 
having  stood  just  west  of  the  extreme  ends  of  the  pres- 
ent enlarged  mansion.  They  were  probably  connected 
with  the  villa  by  some  architectural  device — wall, 
lattice,  or  colonnade. 

No  doubt  when  winter  closed  in  and  the  villa  and 
its  complementary  little  houses  were  completed  they 
presented  a  neat  and  comfortable  appearance.  In 
whatever  he  did  Washington's  taste  did  not  err  at 
either  end  of  parsimony  or  extravagance. 

There  were  letters  from  others  at  Mount  Vernon, 
one  in  particular  which  the  Colonel  must  have  passed 
about  for  the  amusement  of  his  staff.  Those  were 
days  of  irresponsible  spelling  and  use  of  capital  letters. 
But  William  Poole  the  miller  in  addressing  his  "hon- 
ourabel  Cornal,"  disclosed  real  imagination  in  the  use 
of  these  tools  of  expression.  Punctuation  he  ignored 
altogether.  Here  is  Poole's  phonetic  masterpiece: 

"Most  honourabel  Cornal  this  with  Great  Sub- 
mishon  and  i  hope  with  out  a  fens  and  i  hope  your 
honour  is  in  good  health,  i  have  hear  made  Bold  to 
let  you  no  the  Qualatys  of  your  mill  i  have  in  gande  now 
gaind  604  Barels  of  Corn  and  Sixteen  Barels  of  wheat 
and  have  in  gaind  a  Great  Deal  of  Custum  from 
meariland  as  well  as  heare  and  now  She  fails  for  want  of 
water  By  reason  of  a  good  Deel  of  Dry  weather  which 
makes  me  Sorry  that  i  cant  grind  faster  for  your  Cus- 
tumers  and  by  havein  so  Cloes  in  ploy  with  the  mill  the 


58  MOUNT  VERNON 

fore  part  of  the  year  it  has  hind  ard  me  from  tendin 
the  ground  which  i  was  to  have  and  by  M*  John  Wash- 
ingtons  Desiers  i  throd  up  the  ground  to  humphry 
Knight  and  M*  John  Washington  told  me  he  would 
be  bound  your  honour  would  Sattis  f y  me  for  it  in  which  i 
make  no  Dout  of  your  honours  goodness  as  i  am  reaDy 
to  obay  and  have  in  a  Large  f amalea  to  maintane  i  must 
in  Deaver  for  a  maintaneance  for  them  in  which  i  hope 
youre  honour  wont  tak  it  amiss  and  that  you  will 
bepleast  to  let  me  no  in  time  if  i  am  to  minde  the  mill 
agane  and  upon  what  tirms  as  i  Can  maintane  my 
famalea  i  be  in  very  willin  to  serv  your  honour  with  out 
hurtin  my  Self  the  hors  which  your  Brother  put  here 
Dy<?  with  a  Distemper  which  is  a  great  Dis  a  point- 
ment  to  the  meariland  Custumars  and  now  Sur  i  must 
begg  a  line  ar  to  from  your  honour  that  i  ma  no  what 
i  have  to  Doo  up  on  which  i  Shall  rely,  and  so  to  Con- 
clud  from  your  humbel  Servant  at  Command 

WILLIM  POOLE  miller 
July  ye  9  :  1758 

To 

The  Honourabel  Curnal  George 
Washington  —  att  Win  Chester  or 
Elsewheare 

This. 

The  end  of  the  campaign  in  the  WTest  terminated  the 
frontier  troubles  with  the  French,  and  Washington  was 
free  to  fulfil  with  honor  his  earlier  purpose  to  resign  his 
commission.  This  he  did  on  his  return  to  Williamsburg 
in  December,  1758.  He  did  not  again  take  up  his  sword 
until  the  Colonies  called  him  from  his  retirement  at 


MOUNT  VERNON  59 

Mount  Vernon,  nearly  seventeen  years  later,  to  lead 
their  army  in  the  War  of  Independence. 

The  termination  of  the  war  with  the  French  meant 
more  to  Washington  than  merely  his  return  to  civil  life. 
It  brought  the  consummation  of  those  promises  ex- 
changed the  previous  spring.  He  and  Martha  Custis 
were  married  in  January,  1759. 

There  is  so  little  that  is  definite  and  authentic  about 
this  event,  so  important  in  this  story,  that  it  is  not  easy 
to  reconstruct  a  detailed  picture  of  the  interesting  oc- 
casion. The  Rev.  Mr.  Mosson,  rector  of  St.  Peter's, 
performed  the  ceremony.  The  exact  date  was  lost 
for  nearly  a  hundred  years,  when  it  was  picked  out  of 
a  letter  written  by  Mrs.  Bache  to  her  father,  Benjamin 
Franklin,  and  dated  January,  1779.  She  wrote:  "I 
have  lately  been  several  times  invited  abroad  with 
the  general  and  Mrs.  Washington.  He  always  in- 
quires after  you,  in  a  most  affectionate  manner,  and 
speaks  of  you  highly.  We  danced  at  Mrs.  Powell's  on 
your  birthday,  or  night,  I  should  say,  in  company  to- 
gether, and  he  told  me  it  was  the  anniversary  of  his 
marriage;  it  was  just  twenty  years  that  night." 

Dr.  Franklin  was  born  on  January  17, 1759,  by  the  old 
calendar  in  vogue  at  the  date  of  his  daughter's  letter. 
The  discrepancy  between  the  old  and  the  new  calendar 
was  eleven  days,  which  fixes  Washington's  wedding  day 
on  the  sixth  of  January. 

The  place  where  they  were  married  is  still  undeter- 
mined. Washington  Irving,  Bishop  Meade,  and  Ben- 
son J.  Lossing  say  at  Mrs.  Custis'  residence,  the  White 
House  on  the  Pamunkey.  Worthington  Ford  and 
Henry  Cabot  Lodge  say  at  Saint  Peter's  Church.  The 


60  MOUNT  VERNON 

bride's  own  grandson  avoided  the  controversy.  As  all 
the  accounts  of  the  festivities  at  the  White  House  that  day 
are  based  on  tradition,  his  recital  is  apt  to  be  as  depend- 
able as  any.  And  much  had  he  heard  of  that  marriage, 
he  said,  "from  gray-haired  domestics  who  waited  at  the 
board  where  love  made  the  feast  and  Washington  was 
the  guest.  And  rare  and  high  was  the  revelry,  at  that 
palmy  period  of  Virginia's  festal  age;  for  many  were 
gathered  to  that  marriage,  of  the  good,  the  great,  the 
gifted,  and  the  gay,  while  Virginia,  with  joyous  ac- 
clamation, hailed  in  her  youthful  hero  a  prosperous  and 
happy  bridegroom.  'And  so  you  remember  when 
Colonel  Washington  came  a  courting  of  your  mistress?' 
said  the  biographer  to  old  Cully,  in  his  hundredth  year. 
'Ay,  master,  that  I  do,'  replied  the  ancient  family 
servant,  who  had  lived  to  see  five  generations;  'great 
times,  sir,  great  times !  Shall  never  see  the  like  again ! ' 
'And  Washington  looked  something  like  a  man,  a 
proper  man;  hey,  Cully?'  'Never  seed  the  like,  sir; 
never  the  likes  of  him,  tho'  I  have  seen  many  in  my  day; 
so  tall,  so  straight!  and  then  he  sat  a  horse  and  rode 
with  such  an  air!  Ah,  sir;  he  wras  like  no  one  else! 
Many  of  the  grandest  gentlemen  in  their  gold  lace  were 
at  the  wedding,  but  none  looked  like  the  man  himself ! ' ' 

Mrs.  Pryor,  in  her  life  of  the  mother  of  Washington, 
says  Martha's  wedding  gown  "was  thus  described  by  one 
of  the  guests :  a  white  satin  quilt,  over  which  a  heavy  white 
silk,  interwoven  with  threads  of  silver,  was  looped  back 
with  white  satin  ribbons,  richly  brocaded  in  a  leaf  pat- 
tern. Her  bodice  was  of  plain  satin,  and  the  brocade  was 
fastened  on  the  bust  with  a  stiff  butterfly  bow  of  the 
ribbon.  Delicate  lace  finished  the  low,  square  neck. 


MRS.   GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

From  an  engraving  of  the  original  painting  by  John  Woolaston 
Now  hanging  in  Washington  and  Lee  University,  Lexington,  Virginia 


MOUNT  VERNON  61 

There  were  close  elbow  sleeves  revealing  a  puff  and  frill 
of  lace.  Strings  of  pearls  were  woven  in  and  out  of  her 
powdered  hair.  Her  high-heeled  slippers  were  of  white 
satin,  with  brilliant  buckles." 

There  is  at  Mount  Vernon  one  surviving  link  between 
that  event  and  what  can  be  conjectured  of  it.  It  is  pre- 
served at  this  writing  in  the  cabinet  in  one  of  the  upper 
chambers,  known  as  the  Green  Room,  a  quaint  old  pin- 
cushion made  of  a  piece  of  Martha  Custis'  wedding  dress, 
and  from  it  may  be  confirmed  at  least  that  portion  of  the 
anonymous  guest's  description  which  says  that  it  was 
brocaded  satin  and  was  white  and  was  threaded  with 
silver. 

The  honeymoon  was  spent  in  Williamsburg.  To-day 
the  old  town  is  a  diminishing  echo  of  the  sprightly  capi- 
tal of  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century.  The 
venerable  buildings  of  William  and  Mary  rise  in  proud 
consciousness  that  it  is  the  second  oldest  college  in  the 
country.  The  Raleigh  Tavern,  where  the  "dissolved" 
Burgesses  met  in  defiance  of  their  Royal  Governor,  still 
stands  and  nearby  is  old  Bruton  Church  shepherding  its 
yard  of  colonial  notables.  But  gone  is  the  House  of 
Burgesses  where  Washington  sat  a  part  of  every  one  of 
fifteen  consecutive  years .  Gone  is  the  Governor's  palace, 
scene  of  so  much  viceregal  splendor,  social  and  official. 
Gone  are  the  old  mansions  where  the  worthies  lived  and 
made  the  capital  so  gay;  among  them  Martha  Custis' 
Six-chimney  House.  Near  the  place  where  it  was  stands 
a  yew  tree,  and  the  visitor  is  told  that  it  was  planted  by 
her  own  hand.  In  the  days  of  this  story  the  Six-chim- 
ney House  stood  bravely  forth  one  of  the  handsome 
mansions  of  the  little  capital.  Here  the  young  couple 


62  MOUNT  VERNON 

spent  the  first  months  of  their  honeymoon .  Martha  had 
never  been  to  Mount  Vernon,  and  keen  as  was  her  curi- 
osity to  see  her  new  home  it  had  to  wait  on  the  readjust- 
ment of  her  affairs  and  her  husband's  attendance  upon 
his  first  session  of  the  House  as  a  Burgess. 

Already  a  man  of  extended  land  possessions,  Wash- 
ington, by  his  marriage,  found  himself  a  well-provided 
man  in  other  respects.  Besides  Mount  Vernon's 
twenty-five  hundred  acres,  he  owned  the  paternal  farm 
on  the  Rappahannock  and  thousands  of  acres  beyond 
the  mountains,  part  of  the  bounty  land  which  the  colony 
paid  its  soldiers.  His  wife's  estate  was  described  by  her 
lawyer  as  "large  and  very  extensive,"  and  he  had  urged 
her  to  engage  a  steward,  but  "none  except  a  very  able 
man  though  he  should  require  very  large  wages."  Her 
grandson  estimated  that,  "independently  of  extensive 
and  valuable  landed  estates,"  she  received  fifteen 
thousand  pounds  from  Mr.  Custis.  Elsewhere  the 
widow's  third  is  described  as  equalling  "fifteen  thou- 
sand acres  of  land,  a  good  part  of  it  adjoining  the  city  of 
Williamsburg;  several  lots  in  the  said  city;  be  ween  two 
and  three  hundred  negroes;  and  about  eight  or  ten 
thousand  pounds  upon  bond." 

If  he  found  the  partnership  of  material  advantage,  so 
did  she.  He  was  one  of  the  ablest  administrators  of  his 
time,  and  how  devoted  he  was  as  husband  to  her  and  as 
father  to  her  children  and  grandchildren  will  be  seen. 

Not  less  engrossing  than  the  Colonel's  readjustment 
of  her  business  affairs  were  Mrs.  Washington's  prepara- 
tions in  closing  one  and  opening  another  domestic 
period  in  her  life.  The  old  houses  were  to  be  abandoned , 
and  she  was  preparing  to  settle  her  family  in  a  new  and 


.  MOUNT  VERNON  63 

distant  home.  Those  were  the  days  of  water  travel. 
The  boats  were  loaded  at  the  landing  near  the  mansion 
with  the  furniture  and  bulkier  baggage,  and  sailed  out 
of  the  York  and  up  the  Potomac.  No  such  leisurely 
conveyance  for  the  master  and  mistress.  Time  was 
valuable  to  them.  Only  the  speediest  form  of  travel 
would  satisfy.  As  soon  as  the  Burgesses  rose,  the 
Colonel,  his  bride,  and  her  two  children,  with  their  at- 
tendants and  light  luggage,  flew  across  country  in  their 
own  coach,  behind  four  galloping  thoroughbreds,  whips 
cracking  and  dust  clouds  rolling,  faster  and  faster,  but 
not  so  fast  as  their  eagerness  to  reach  the  house  of  his 
promise  and  her  hope. 

Mount  Vernon  and  its  neighborhood  were  on  their 
part  in  a  high  state  of  expectancy.  First  the  engage- 
ment and  then  the  wedding  had  supplanted  every  other 
topic  and  curiosity  fed  on  the  dire  poverty  of  informa- 
tion about  the  bride.  To  those  on  the  estate  she  was 
an  entire  stranger  whom  they  were  nevertheless  eager  to 
welcome  on  their  trust  in  the  master's  choice.  It  was 
long  before  the  day  when  a  photograph  might  have 
satisfied  the  curious.  Even  Daguerre  was  fifty  years  in 
the  future  with  his  sensitized  silver  plates.  The  only 
acquaintance  they  had  with  her  was  built  from  bits  out 
of  letters  of  varying  dates  to  numerous  people.  She 
was  "plump,"  of  "medium  height,"  with  "hazel  eyes 
and  brown  hair,"  "hot  tempered,"  "over-fond,  pos- 
sessed of  many  amiable  beauties  of  disposition." 

When  the  wedding  day  was  announced  it  was  be- 
lieved at  Mount  Vernon  that  they  would  come  there  at 
once.  But  when  the  Assembly  was  pleaded  for  a  delay 
in  the  South,  it  was  seen  to  be  fortunate  that  she 


64  MOUNT  VERNON 

was  not  to  have  her  first  homecoming  over  the  bottom- 
less clay  of  January  roads,  and  arrive  amid  the  desola- 
tion of  leafless,  shivering  winter  into  an  unwomaned 
house.  Expectation  was  willingly  transferred  to  May, 
when  the  birds,  the  blossoms,  and  the  balmy  days  and 
nights  of  spring  would  create  a  more  fitting  atmosphere 
for  the  bride. 

That  was  the  incomparable  month  when  Martha  first 
knew  Mount  Vernon.  Advance  riders  with  the  sm/dl  lug- 
gage brought  word  that  the  great  coach  was  on  the  way. 
Another  courier  hurried  ahead  from  Fredericksburg  with 
the  detailed  directions  for  every  trifle  of  preparation,  as 
was  Washington's  wont,  while  he  remained  long  enough 
to  rest  the  bride  at  Sister  Betty's  Kenmore  House  in  the 
centre  of  town  and  then  take  her  across  the  Rappahan- 
nock  to  his  mother's  farm  that  she  might  know  her  new 
daughter.  On  the  last  lap  of  the  trip  Belle  Aire  invited 
a  stop  with  a  welcome  from  the  E  wells  and  Gray  sons. 
Then  forward  again,  across  the  head  of  Belmont  Bay  on 
Colchester  Ferry,  over  the  highlands  past  the  old  parish 
church,  down  Michael  Reagen's  hill,  through  another 
valley  with  two  or  three  branches  to  ford,  up  the  long 
hill  at  the  west  end  of  Colonel  Fairfax's  lands,  and,  as 
the  road  descends  again,  with  the  Potomac  in  sight  at 
the  right,  an  interminable  valley  on  the  left,  its  long 
reach  lost  in  the  purple  haze  of  the  distant  hills,  and 
before  them  the  glistening  white  villa  on  the  high  hori- 
zon three  miles  to  the  east,  they  came  on  to  their  own 
domain.  They  were  home  again,  and  for  forty  years 
neither  knew  any  other  place  by  that  hallowed  name 
except  Mount  Vernon. 


CHAPTER  VI 

Settling  in  Mount  Vernon — Development  of  the  Domestic  Life  on 
the  Plantation — Martha  Washington  as  a  Housekeeper — 
Mount  Vernon  Grows  into  a  Village — The  Spinning  House 
— The  Laundry — The  Dairy — The  Smokehouse — The  Kitchen 
— Shopping  in  London  by  Way  of  the  Tobacco  Ships — Wash- 
ington's Taste — Daily  Routine — The  Beginnings  of  Sixteen 
Years  of  Home  Life  and  the  Upbuilding  of  the  Estate. 

WITH  the  arrival  of  the  master  and  the  new  mis- 
tress life  at  Mount  Vernon  took  on  a  new  as- 
pect. During  the  previous  seven  years  the 
mansion  had  been  occupied  only  occasionally,  there 
seems  to  have  been  no  ordered  life  on  the  place,  and 
none  of  the  development  under  which  it  soon  blossomed 
into  one  of  the  first  estates  of  the  colony.  During 
these  seven  years  the  master  was  absent  almost  con- 
tinuously on  the  western  frontier.  Even  the  exten- 
sive repairs,  which  he  planned  in  anticipation  of  bring- 
ing home  his  bride,  had  been  made  in  his  absence. 

Mount  Vernon  now  became  a  house  of  life  and  gayety. 
The  estate  was  developed  and  enlarged.  The  sixteen 
years  following  the  arrival  of  Martha  in  the  spring  of 
1759,  until  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution  in  1775,  was 
the  longest  period  of  the  Washingtons'  uninterrupted 
life  at  home. 

Writing  to  England  in  the  year  of  his  marriage, 
Washington  said:  "I  am  now  I  believe  fixd  at  this 
seat  with  an  agreable  Consort  for  Life.  And  I  hope  to 

65 


66  MOUNT  VERNON 

find  more  happiness  in  retirement  than  I  ever  experi- 
enced amidst  a  wide  and  bustling  World."  He  would 
like  to  have  visited  the  land  of  his  ancestors  and  the 
capital  of  the  mother  country,  but  he  admitted  the 
restraint  on  his  further  freedom:  "I  am  now  tied  by 
the  leg  and  must  set  Inclination  aside." 

Mrs.  Washington  had  brought  with  her  to  Mount 
Vernon  the  two  children  of  her  former  marriage:  Martha 
and  John  Parke  Custis.  Washington  became  their 
guardian.  His  home  was  their  home,  and  by  all  the 
ties  except  blood  there  was  an  affectionate  union  be- 
tween them  which  went  a  long  way  to  compensate  him 
for  his  childless  marriage. 

These  four  were  the  nucleus  of  a  busy  and  exten- 
sive life  on  the  estate.  The  gradual  accumulation  of 
shoemakers,  tailors,  smiths,  carpenters,  wheelwrights, 
masons,  charcoal  burners,  farmers,  millers,  hostlers, 
house  and  outside  servants,  and  overseers,  all  with 
their  families,  constituted  an  army  of  several  hundred. 
Everything  and  everybody  that  had  no  relation  to  the 
"big  house,"  as  the  master's  dwelling  on  a  Virginia 
estate  has  always  been  called,  fell  under  the  direct 
jurisdiction  of  Colonel  Washington.  This  phase  of 
life  at  Mount  Vernon  will  be  considered  later  in  its 
detail  and  development.  The  house  servants  and  all 
those  connected  with  the  domestic  side  of  life  in  the 
big  house  were  the  responsibility  of  Mrs.  Washington. 

She  was  a  woman  of  methodical  habits,  with  real  love 
for  domestic  management,  and  a  native  energy  which 
kept  her  hands  busy  at  all  times.  Even  when  she  sat 
down  to  visit  or  rest  the  knitting  needles  danced  under 
her  chubby  fingers. 


w    a    fe. 

^      *n       »^ 


BJ       ** 

o    a; 


II 

tc    W 

.—     — 


MOUNT  VERNON  67 

Her  grandson  gives  this  brief  sketch  of  her  domestic 
life:  "In  her  dress  though  plain,  she  was  so  scrupu- 
lously neat,  that  ladies  often  wondered  how  Mrs.  Wash- 
ington could  wear  a  gown  for  a  week,  go  through  her 
kitchen  and  laundries,  and  all  the  varieties  of  places  in 
the  routine  of  domestic  management,  and  yet  the  gown 
retained  its  snow-like  whiteness,  unsullied  by  a  single 
speck.  In  her  conduct  to  her  servants,  her  discipline 
was  prompt,  yet  humane,  and  her  household  was  re- 
markable for  the  excellence  of  its  domestics." 

Near  the  big  house  grew  up  little  houses  for  all  sorts 
of  domestic  offices  and  manufacture.  In  one  the  shuttle 
bobbed  back  and  forth  through  the  great  loom,  in 
another  buzzed  a  whole  battery  of  spinning-wheels. 
In  one  year  at  Mount  Vernon  one  man  and  four  girls 
wove  "eight  hundred  and  fifteen  and  three  quarters 
yards  of  linen,  three  hundred  and  sixty  five  and  one 
quarter  yards  of  woollen,  one  hundred  and  forty  four 
yards  of  linsey,  and  forty  yards  of  cotton,  or  a  total 
of  thirteen  hundred  and  sixty  five  and  one  half  yards." 
Later,  when  other  hands  were  added,  the  list  of  manu- 
factured cloths  included:  "Stripped  woolen,  woolen 
plaided,  cotton  striped,  linen,  wool-birdseye,  cotton 
filled  with  wool,  linsey,  M.'s  &  O's,  cotton-India 
dimity,  cotton  jump  stripe,  linen  filled  with  tow,  cotton 
striped  with  silk,  Roman  M.,  Janes  twilled,  huccabac, 
broadcloth,  counterpain,  birdseye  diaper,  Kirsey  wool, 
barragon,  fustian,  bed-ticking,  herring-box,  and  shal- 
loon." 

Across  the  lawn  in  another  of  the  little  white  houses 
stood  the  suddy,  steaming  tubs.  There  was  no  ap- 
pointed "washday"  on  the  plantation.  Every  day 


68  MOUNT  VERNON 

the  laundry  rang  with  the  music  of  washboard  and 
mangle,  beaten  clothes  and  hissing  steam.  Its  neigh- 
bor, the  dairy,  was  scarcely  less  active  with  the  gallons 
of  milk  to  skim,  the  butter  to  churn,  and  the  cheese  to 
prepare.  A  nearby  smokehouse,  lined  with  sides,  legs, 
and  shoulders  hanging  on  crude  forked  hooks  of  natural 
wood,  was  the  one  quiet  house  in  the  little  group. 

After  the  fashion  of  most  old  Virginia  homes,  the 
kitchen  was  in  a  detached  house  next  to  the  big  house, 
and  processions  of  pickaninnies  carried  the  heaped 
dishes  across  the  lawn  in  to  the  family  dining-room. 
The  modern  or  even  the  now  old-fashioned  cook-stove 
was  unknown.  The  altar  of  this  temple  was  a  great 
fireplace  with  an  opening  which  would  accommodate 
half  a  dozen  grown  persons.  Here  andirons  held  wood 
cut  to  cord  size,  and  often  oak  logs  which  strained  a 
brace  of  black  backs  to  lift  into  place.  Cranes  of  iron, 
wrought  over  the  hill  in  the  blacksmith  shop,  swung 
steaming  kettles  over  the  glowing  coals.  Quarters  of 
beef,  young  suckling  pigs,  and  rows  of  fowl,  game  and 
domestic,  were  roasted  on  spits.  Corn  pone  and 
sweet  potatoes  nestled  in  the  ashes.  The  plantation 
cooks  knew  the  nice  properties  of  all  the  woods,  and 
were  particular  to  have  sassafras  or  beech-nut,  red  or 
white  oak,  hickory,  pine,  or  gum,  according  as  they 
needed  a  slow  fire  or  fast,  or  as  the  epicure  demanded 
each  wood's  own  smoky  aroma. 

Mrs.  Washington  refurnished  Mount  Vernon  through- 
out. Some  things  she  brought  up  from  her  former 
homes  in  the  York  country  and  she  retained  a  few 
things  in  the  house  which  survived  the  days  of  Lawrence 
and  Anne.  Among  the  latter  were  the  painting  of  the 


THB   KITCHEN   FIREPLACE 

In  the  small  building  connected  with  the  Mansion  by  the  west  colonnade.     The 

most  interesting  feature  of  the  great  kitchen  fireplace  is  the  smoke-jack — a 

slender  belt  chain  operating  from  a  circular  fan  in  the  chimney  that  turns 

the  spit.     The  chain  runs  over  a  flanged  wheel  at  the  end  of  the 

spit,  and  the  draft  from   the  fire  keeps  the  fan  in  motion 


MOUNT  VERNON  69 

English  fleet  before  Carthagena  and  the  old  lantern  in 
the  hall,  sent  Lawrence  by  Admiral  Vernon,  and  the 
brass  window  cornices  and  curtain  bands  in  the  west 
parlor,  all  of  which  have  survived  the  changes  of  years 
and  are  to-day  preserved  in  their  accustomed  places. 

In  the  main  Mount  Vernon  was  refurnished  by  order 
on  London.  The  Virginia  colonial  dame  of  means 
shopped  almost  exclusively  by  mail  order  on  England, 
though  in  point  of  time  she  was  then  more  distant  from 
the  London  market  than  is  Japan  to-day. 

Robert  Gary  &  Company  were  Washington's  London 
correspondents  at  this  time.  Immediately  the  Colonel 
and  his  bride  reached  home  they  made  an  invoice  of 
needed  furnishings  and  sent  a  long  order,  which  in- 
cluded : 

"  1  Tester  Bedstead  7|  feet  pitch  with  fashionable  bleu  or  blue 
and  white  curtains  to  suit  a  Room  laid  w  yl  Ireld.  paper. — 

"Window  curtains  of  the  same  for  two  windows;  with  either 
Papier  Mache  Cornish  to  them,  or  Cornish  covered  with  the  Cloth. 

"  1  fine  Bed  Coverlid  to  match  the  Curtains.  4  Chair  bottoms 
of  the  same;  that  is,  as  much  covering  suited  to  the  above  furni- 
ture as  will  go  over  the  seats  of  4  Chairs  (which  I  have  by  me)  in 
order  to  make  the  whole  furniture  of  this  Room  uniformly  handsome 
and  genteel. 

"1.  Fashionable  sett  of  Desert  Glasses  and  Stands  for  Sweet 
meats  Jellys  &c — together  with  Wash  Glasses  and  a  proper  Stand 
for  these  also. — 

"2  Setts  of  Chamber,  or  Bed  Carpets — Wilton. 

"4.  Fashionable  China  Branches  &  Stands  for  Candles. 

"2  Neat  fire  Screens — 

"50  Ibs  Spirma  Citi  Candles — 

"6  Carving  Knives  and  Forks — handles  of  Stained  Ivory  and 
bound  with  Silver. 

"  1  Large  neat  and  Easy  Couch  for  a  Passage. 


70  MOUNT  VERNON 

"50  yards  of  best  Floor  Matting. — 

"Order  from  the  best  House  in  Madeira  a  Pipe  of  the  best  Old 
Wine,  and  let  it  be  secured  from  Pilferers." 

This  order  further  included  hosiery  of  cotton  and 
silk;  half  a  dozen  pairs  of  shoes  "to  be  made  by  one 
Didsbury,  on  Colo.  Baylor's  Last — but  a  little  larger 
than  his — &  to  have  high  heels";  riding  gloves;  a  "Suit 
of  Cloaths  of  the  finest  Cloth  &  fashionable  colour"; 
a  "large  assortment  of  grass  seeds";  "the  newest  and 
most  approvd  Treatise  of  Agriculture";  also  "a  New 
System  of  Agriculture,  or  a  Speedy  Way  to  grow  Rich," 
and  "Six  Bottles  of  Greenhows  Tincture." 

This  was  dispatched  in  May,  1759.  In  September 
Washington  forwarded  an  order  of  about  two  hundred 
and  fifty  items,  nearly  all  from  two  to  six  pairs  or  dozens 
of  the  articles  itemized.  Activities  were  extending  on 
a  large  scale  on  the  estate,  but  the  orders  assumed  such 
wholesale  character  because  they  were  sent  to  the  Eng- 
lish agents  only  twice  a  year. 

"From  this  time,"  he  writes,  "it  will  be  requisite, 
that  you  should  raise  three  accounts;  one  for  me,  an- 
other for  the  estate,  and  a  third  for  Miss  Patty  Custis; 
or,  if  you  think  it  more  eligible  (as  I  believe  it  will  be), 
make  me  debtor  on  my  own  account  for  John  Parke 
Custis,  and  for  Miss  Martha  Parke  Custis,  as  each  will 
have  their  part  of  the  estate  assigned  to  them  this  fall, 
and  the  whole  will  remain  under  my  management, 
whose  particular  care  it  shall  be  to  distinguish  always, 
either  by  letter  or  invoice,  from  whom  tobbacos  are 
shipped,  and  for  whose  use  goods  are  imported,  in  order 
to  prevent  any  mistakes  arising." 

Quaint  items  arrest  the  eye  all  along  these  lists. 


MOUNT  VERNON  71 

There  are  "a  light  summer  suit  made  of  Duroy,  2  plain 
Beaver  Hats,  a  Salmon-covered  Tabby,  Calamanco 
shoes,  6m  Minnikin  Pins,  30  yards  Red  Shalloon,  6 
castor  Hats,  2  Postilion  Caps,  one  dozen  pairs  coarse  shoe 
and  knee  buckles,  450  ells  Osnabergs."  In  an  order 
"for  Miss  Custis,  4  years  old,"  were  "2  Caps,  2  pairs 
Ruffles,  2  Tuckers,  Bibs,  and  Aprons,  if  fashionable,  2  fans, 
2  Masks,  2  Bonnetts,"  a  "stiffened  Coat  of  Fashionable 
silk,  made  to  pack-thread  stays,"  one  fashionable 
dressed  baby  10s.  For  "Master  Custis,  6  years  old," 
he  ordered  "  1  piece  black  Hair  Ribbon,  1  pair  handsome 
silver  Shoe  and  Knee  Buckles,  10s.  worth  of  toys,  6 
little  books  for  children  beginning  to  read,  and  1  light 
duffel  Cloak  with  silver  frogs." 

Other  interesting  articles  in  the  early  lists  are  some 
two  hundred  carpenter's  tools,  an  extensive  provision  for 
the  pharmacopoeia,  "all  liquids  in  double  flint  bottles," 
and  these  art  objects  for  the  adornment  of  his  rooms 
listed  under  "Directions  for  the  Busts": 

"4.  One  of  Alexander  the  Great;  another  of  Julius 
Caesar;  another  of  Charles  XII.  of  Sweden;  and  a  fourth 
of  the  King  of  Prussia. 

"N.  B.  These  are  not  to  exceed  fifteen  niches  in 
height,  nor  ten  in  width.  v 

"2  Other  busts,  of  Prince  Eugene  and  the  Duke  of 
Marlborough,  somewhat  smaller. 

"2  Wild  Beasts,  not  to  exceed  twelve  inches  in 
height,  nor  eighteen  in  length. 

"Sundry  small  ornaments  for  chimney-piece." 

These  objects  have  been  described  as  having  actually 
been  a  part  of  the  furnishings  of  Mount  Vernon.  Un- 


72  MOUNT  VERNON 

fortunately,  Washington  was  disappointed  in  expecting 
these.  Indeed,  when  the  vessel  brought  the  other  goods 
ordered,  the  invoice  had  these  entries  instead  of  the  art 
objects  requested: 

"A  Groupe  of  Aeneas  carrying  his  Father  out  of  Troy, 
with  four  statues,  viz.  his  Father  Anchises,  his  wife  Creusa 
and  his  son  Ascanius,  neatly  finisht  and  bronzed  with  copper  £3.3 

Two  Groupes,  with  two  statues  each  of  Bacchus  &  Flora 
finisht  neat,  &  bronzed  with  copper  £2.2  each 4.4 

Two  ornamented  vases  with  Faces  and  Festoons  of  Grapes 
and  vine  Leaves,  finished  neat  &  bronzed  with  copper  .      .      .     2.2 
The  above  for  ye  Chimney  Piece. 

Two  Lyons  after  the  antique  Lyons  in  Italy,  finished  neat 
and  bronzed  with  copper,  £1.5  each 2.10 

These  is  the  best  ornaments  I  could  possibly  make  for  the 
chimney  piece.  And  of  all  the  wild  beasts  as  coud  be  made,  there 
is  none  better  than  the  Lyons.  The  manner  of  placing  them  on 
ye  chimney  piece  should  be  thus: 

A   groupe    of Vase Aeneas Vase Groupe   of 

Flora  Bacchus 

There  is  no  Busts  of  Alexander  ye  Great,  (none  at  all  of  Charles 
12th  of  Sweden,)  Julius  Csesar,  King  of  Prussia,  Prince  Eugene, 
nor  the  Duke  of  Marlborough,  of  the  size  desired;  and  to  make 
models  would  be  very  expensive — at  least  4  guineas  each." 

However,  William  Cheere,  the  London  art  dealer, 
offered  to  make  "Busts  exactly  to  the  size  wrote  for  (15 
inches)  and  very  good  ones,  at  the  rate  of  16/  each:  of 
Homer,  Virgil,  Horace,  Cicero,  Plato,  Aristotle,  Seneca, 
Galens,  Vestall,  Virgin  Faustina,  Chaucer,  Spencer, 
Johnson,  Shakespear,  Beaumont,  Fletcher,  Milton, 
Prior,  Pope,  Congreve,  Swift,  Addison,  Drydon,  Locke, 
Newton." 


MOUNT  VERNON  73 

Although  bills  were  itemized  in  pounds,  shillings, 
and  pence,  they  were  paid  in  tobacco.  This  plant  was 
at  once  a  crop  and  currency.  Washington,  like  other 
great  planters,  shipped  his  tobacco  to  London  and  drew 
against  it  in  orders  for  merchandise. 

The  orders  which  were  sent  from  Mount  Vernon  to 
London  show  as  clearly  as  any  other  surviving  evidence 
the  taste  of  the  master  which  he  stamped  on  the  life 
there.  He  did  not  believe  in  a  false  economy.  There 
is  rarely  a  question  of  price.  But  throughout  the  orders 
appear  the  three  requisites:  good,  neat,  and  fashionable. 
Always  fashionable,  but  never  ostentatious.  In  one 
letter  he  asks  for  the  "finest  cloth  and  fashionable 
colour";  again  for  a  "genteel  suit  of  cloaths  made  of 
superfine  broadcloth,  handsomely  chosen";  but,  he 
writes,  "I  want  neither  lace  or  embroidery.  Plain 
clothes,  with  a  gold  or  silver  button  (if  worn  in  genteel 
dress),  are  all  I  desire."  This  excellence,  neatness, 
and  fashionableness  in  his  personal  attire  was  reflected 
in  his  house  and  its  furnishings. 

The  domestic  life  at  Mount  Vernon  was  simple  and 
methodical.  One  of  Washington's  sense  of  order  and 
organization  could  endure  nothing  else.  Martha,  either 
natively  or  by  cultivation,  supplemented  him  exactly. 
"Everywhere  order,  method,  punctuality,  economy 
reigned,"  said  his  adopted  son.  "  His  household  .  .  . 
was  always  upon  a  liberal  scale,  and  was  conducted  with 
a  regard  to  economy  and  usefulness." 

They  both  were  early  risers,  though  breakfast  was  not 
early  for  all  the  household.  Washington  in  winter 
often  made  his  own  fire  in  his  library  and  there,  over  his 
correspondence  and  accounts,  did  an  immense  amount 


74  MOUNT  VERNON 

of  work  in  a  few  hours.  Mrs.  Washington  rose  when  he 
did  and  directed  the  beginning  of  the  day's  domestic 
duties  into  easy  and  ordered  channels.  After  break- 
fast he  rode  out  on  one  of  his  horses  to  overlook  the 
laborers  on  the  various  farms  into  which  he  divided 
Mount  Vernon  estate,  and  returned,  according  to 
Custis,  "Punctual  as  the  hand  of  a  clock,  at  a  quarter  to 
three  .  .  .  and  retired  to  his  room  to  dress,  as  was 
his  custom."  Mrs.  Washington  chose  the  first  hour  for 
religious  devotion  in  her  own  room,  an  unfailing  custom 
her  life  long.  Dinner  was  a  mid-afternoon  meal  after 
the  Southern  tradition.  Washington  rarely  ate  any 
supper,  though  it  was  always  spread  for  his  household 
and  guests.  When  at  Mount  Vernon  it  was  his  habit  to 
retire  at  nine  o'clock. 

Washington  was  already  an  important  figure,  one  of 
the  most  important  in  the  colony.  But  in  the  sixteen 
years  of  his  married  life  at  Mount  Vernon  before  the 
Revolution  he  led  a  life  of  comparative  retirement,  and 
of  real  freedom  and  ease,  devoting  himself  to  the 
amenities  of  family  life  and  the  development  of  his 
estate.  It  was  the  life  of  his  choice.  He  never  planned 
and  he  had  no  ambition  for  any  career  elsewhere  than  on 
his  own  acres.  Mount  Vernon  was  the  shrine  of  his 
greatest  happiness.  He  was  rarely  far  from  his  home 
during  these  sixteen  years.  When  later  he  did  consent 
to  absent  himself  it  was  at  the  call  of  his  country  in  the 
public  service.  It  was  only  patriotic  duty  that  made 
the  long  absences  endurable,  and  he  wrote  and  spoke  of 
Mount  Vernon  always  in  terms  of  affection  and  home- 
sickness. 

If  during  this  period  the  estate  did  not  reach  in  every 


MOUNT  VERNON  75 

aspect  the  maturity,  expansion,  and  beauty  of  later 
years,  nevertheless,  under  his  able  administration,  it 
grew  steadily  in  acreage  and  productiveness,  until  even 
at  this  time  it  became  one  of  the  largest  and  best- 
ordered  plantations  in  the  colonies.  It  was  the  scene  of 
an  easy,  graceful  social  life,  based  on  an  opulent  hospi- 
tality for  which  the  villa  eventually  grew  too  small  and 
compelled  the  additions  which  give  the  mansion  its 
familiar  outlines.  These  years  were  freer  of  care  and 
more  buoyant  in  happiness  than  any  that  followed, 
when  leadership  imposed  its  burden  of  responsibility  and 
fame  robbed  him  of  his  treasured  retirement. 


CHAPTER  VII 

Washington  as  a  Planter — Extending  the  Boundaries  of  the 
Estate — The  Five  Farms — Farm  Organization — Virginia 
Methods — Agricultural  Experiments — Horses  and  Cattle 
—The  Old  Mill— The  Distillery— The  Ovens— Fish  and 
Fishing — Charity — Making  Ends  Meet. 

WASHINGTON'S  ambitions  when  he  settled  in 
retirement  at  Mount  Vernon  with  his  "agre- 
able   Consort"    did   not   extend   beyond   a 
desire  "to  pursue  the  arts  of  agriculture,  increase  his 
fortune,  cultivate  the  social  virtues,  fulfill  his  duties  as  a 
citizen,  and  sustain  in  its  elevated  dignity  the  character 
of  a  country  gentleman." 

But  so  thorough  was  he  in  all  he  undertook,  that  of 
his  pursuit  of  but  one  item  of  this  program,  the  science 
of  farming,  he  made  a  career  less  notable  only  than  his 
public  services  to  his  country.  He  found  "much  more 
delightful  to  an  undebauched  mind  the  task  of  making 
improvements  on  the  earth,  than  all  the  vain  glory  that 
can  be  acquired  by  ravaging  it  by  the  most  unin- 
terrupted career  of  conquests."  He  expressed  the  be- 
lief that  "the  life  of  the  husbandman  of  all  others  is  the 
most  delectable.  .  .  .  To  see  plants  rise  from  the 
earth  and  flourish  by  the  superior  skill  of  the  laborer  fills 
a  contemplative  mind  with  ideas  which  are  more  easy  to 
be  conceived  than  expressed." 

When  he  was  settled  his  first  thought  was  to  extend 
the  boundaries  of  his  estate.  Washington  seemed  to 

76 


MOUNT  VERNON  77 

have  possessed  a  passion  for  land,  though  he  treated  his 
purchases  lightly  and  declared  there  was  "in  truth  more 
fancy  than  judgment "  in  them.  His  eagerness  to  add  to 
his  home  lands  may  for  all  that  have  been  based  on  his 
foresight.  He  had  seen  about  him  overmuch  of  the  habit 
of  farming  which  planted  one  or  at  most  two  crops  in 
repetition  until  it  exhausted  the  ground  and  compelled 
the  planter  to  turn  to  a  virgin  field  for  new  production. 
Spreading  acres  gave  the  Virginian  colonist  more  than  a 
sense  of  domain.  An  abundance  of  new  land  eased  his 
situation  when  repeated  tobacco  or  wheat  and  corn 
crops  destroyed  the  fertility  of  the  overworked 
ground. 

His  first  addition  to  Mount  Vernon  was  the  Clifton 
tract  across  the  original  Little  Hunting  Creek  boundary, 
thus  extending  his  river-front  to  the  east.  From 
Thomas  Hanson  Marshall,  of  Marshall  Hall  across  the 
Potomac  but  in  sight  of  Mount  Vernon,  and  from 
his  kindly  but  unfortunate  neighbor,  Captain  John 
Posey,  and  from  others  he  added  land  to  the  west- 
ward which  in  a  measure  completed  the  original 
Spencer- Washington  tract  bounded  by  Little  Hunting 
Creek  and  Dogue  Creek.  Other  lands  were  acquired 
which  carried  the  estate  northwestward  over  the  hills  at 
the  head  of  the  latter  inlet.  This  gave  him  ferry  landing 
a  mile  west  of  the  Mansion,  where  he  often  crossed 
to  the  Maryland  side  and  cut  across  country  to  Port 
Tobacco  and  thence  ferried  to  the  Virginia  side  only  a 
short  distance  from  his  brother  Augustine's  in  West- 
moreland, where  he  sometimes  visited  on  his  way  to  the 
dower  lands  in  New  Kent  and  to  Williamsburg.  The 
purchase  likewise  added  to  his  possession  at  the  same 


78  MOUNT  VERNON 

point  one  of  the  notable  "fishing  shores"  of  the  upper 
Potomac.  In  a  few  years  the  ferry  proved  unable  to 
support  the  boats.  On  Washington's  petition  to  the 
Assembly  it  was  closed  by  law,  but  the  fishing  shore  re- 
tains its  ancient  prestige  to-day. 

Washington  was  from  the  first  a  scientific  farmer. 
He  had  all  the  respectable  authorities  he  could  obtain 
in  his  library.  He  organized  and  prosecuted  the  work 
with  that  masterly  executive  faculty  which  he  displayed 
later  in  mustering  and  manipulating  the  raw  colonial 
troops. 

He  divided  Mount  Vernon  into  five  farms:  the 
Mansion  House  Farm  on  which  stood  the  big  house 
and  the  village  of  surrounding  buildings;  the  Fiver 
Farm  which  lay  across  Little  Hunting  Creek  to  the 
east;  Muddy  Hole  Farm  on  the  low  meadows  to  the 
north;  Union  Farm  next  west  of  Mansion  House  Farm 
along  the  river  and  Dogue  Creek;  and  Dogue  Run  Farm 
which  extended  up  the  valley  of  the  north  branch  of 
the  run  feeding  Dogue  Creek.  About  half  of  all  Mount 
Vernon  estate  was  in  woodland. 

Each  farm  was  a  separate  establishment  with  its  own 
overseer,  hands,  quarters  for  the  slaves,  farm  buildings, 
and  stock.  Over  all  the  farms  was  a  general  steward 
or  overseer,  who  was  responsible  directly  and  only  to 
Washington.  He  called  this  man  his  manager.  Once 
a  week,  on  Saturday,  reports  were  made  to  the  manager. 
These  were  set  in  order  and  passed  on  to  the  master. 
Washington  transcribed  the  data  in  these  reports  with 
scrupulous  exactness  into  note-books,  diaries,  and  ac- 
count books,  as  those  which  survive  attest  in  his  own 
handwriting.  They  recited  in  detail  the  work  under- 


MOUNT  VERNON  79 

taken  and  accomplished;  the  labor  performed  by  each 
hand;  the  place,  time,  and  conditions  of  sowing,  har- 
vest, and  sales.  Though  each  farm  was  run  separately 
Washington  directed  them  all  on  an  interdependent 
system. 

He  has  described  the  mode  of  farming  which  prevailed 
in  Virginia:  "There  is,  perhaps,  scarcely  any  part  of 
America  where  farming  has  been  less  attended  to 
than  in  this  State.  The  cultivation  of  tobacco  has 
been  almost  the  sole  object  with  men  of  landed  prop- 
erty, and  consequently  a  regular  course  of  crops  have 
never  been  in  view.  The  general  custom  has  been, 
first  to  raise  a  crop  of  Indian  corn  (maise)  which,  accord- 
ing to  the  mode  of  cultivation,  is  a  good  preparation  for 
wheat;  then  a  crop  of  wheat;  after  which  the  ground 
is  respited  (except  from  weeds,  and  every  trash  that 
can  contribute  to  its  foulness)  for  about  eighteen 
months;  and  so  on,  alternately,  without  any  dressing, 
till  the  land  is  exhausted;  when  it  is  turned  out,  with- 
out being  sown  with  grass-seeds,  or  any  method  taken 
to  restore  it;  and  another  piece  is  ruined  in  the  same 
manner.  No  more  cattle  is  raised  than  can  be  sup- 
ported by  lowland  meadows,  swamps,  &c.,  and  the 
tops  and  blades  of  Indian  corn;  as  very  few  persons 
have  attended  to  sewing  grasses,  and  connecting  cattle 
with  their  crops.  The  Indian  corn  is  the  chief  support 
of  the  laborers  and  horses.  Our  lands,  .  .  .  were 
originally  very  good;  but  use,  and  abuse,  have  made 
them  quite  otherwise." 

For  the  prevailing  conditions  he  gradually  studied 
out  a  substitute  on  the  basis  of  stimulating  and  resting 
instead  of  taxing  and  exhausting  the  land.  He  finally 


80  MOUNT  VERNON 

drew  up  for  his  manager  this  rotation  table,  covering 
six  years,  as  best  for  Mount  Vernon  farms : 

"1st.  .  .  .  Indian  Corn,  with  intermediate  rows  of  Potatoes, 
or  any  root  more  certain  or  useful  (if  such  there 
be)  that  will  not  impede  the  plough,  hoe  or  har- 
row in  the  cultivation  of  the  Corn. 

2d.  .  .  .  Wheat,  Rye  or  Winter  Barley  at  the  option  of  the 
Tenant — sown  as  usual  when  the  Corn  receives 
its  last  working. 

3d.  ...  Buckwheat,  Peas  or  Pulse;  or  Vegetables  of  any 
sort,  or  partly  of  all;  or  anything  else,  except 
grain  (that  is  corn  crops) — for  which  this  is 
preparatory. 

4th.  .  .  .  Oats,  or  Summer  barley,  at  the  discretion  of  the 
Tenant,  with  Clover,  if  and  when  the  ground  is 
in  condition  to  bear  it. — 

5.  ...  To  remain  in  Clover  for  cutting,  for  feeding,  or 
for  both — or  if  Clover  should  not  be  sown — 
or  if  sown  should  not  succeed; — then  and  in  that 
case  the  field  may  be  filled  with  any  kind  of 
Vetch,  pulse  or  Vegetables. 

6 ....  To  lie  uncultivated  in  pasture,  and  for  the  purpose 
of  manuring,  for  the  same  round  of  crops  again." 

From  the  time  that  he  settled  at  Mount  Vernon 
Washington  conducted  experiments  in  combinations  of 
soil,  fertilizers,  and  seeds.  None  is  more  interesting  than 
one  of  his  earliest  set  out  in  his  diary,  "Where,  how, 
and  with  whom  my  time  is  Spent,"  for  April  14, 1760; 
an  example  in  theory  and  practice: 

"  Mix'd  my  compost  in  a  box  with  ten  apartments,  in 
the  following  manner,  viz: — in  No  1.  is  three  pecks  of 
the  earth  brought  from  below  the  hill  out  of  the  46 
acre  field  without  any  mixture; — in  No.  2 — is  two  pecks 


MOUNT  VERNON  81 

of  the  same  earth  and  one  of  marie  taken  out  of  the 
said  field,  which  marie  seem'd  a  little  inclinable  to  sand. 

"3.  Has — 2  Pecks  of  said  earth,  and  1  of  river  side 
sand. 

"4.  Has  a  peck  of  horse  dung. 

"5.  Has  mud  taken  out  of  the  creek. 

"6.  Has  cow  dung. 

"7.  Marie  from  the  gulleys  on  the  Hill  side  which 
seem'd  to  be  purer  than  the  other. 

"8.  Sheep  Dung.— 

"9.  Black  mould  taken  out  of  the  Pocoson  on  the 
creek  side. 

"  10.  Clay  got  just  below  the  garden. 

"All  mix'd  with  the  same  quantity  and  sort  of  earth 
in  the  most  effectual  manner  by  reducing  the  whole 
to  a  tolerable  degree  of  fineness  and  jabling  them  well 
together  in  a  Cloth. 

"In  each  of  these  divisions  were  planted  three  grains 
of  wheat,  3  of  oats,  and  as  many  of  barley — all  at  equal 
distance  in  rows,  and  of  equal  depth  (done  by  a  ma- 
chine made  for  the  purpose). 

"The  wheat  rows  are  next  the  number'd  side,  the 
oats  in  the  middle,  and  the  barley  on  that  side  next  the 
upper  part  of  the  garden. — 

"Two  or  three  hours  after  sowing  in  this  manner,  and 
about  an  hour  before  Sunset  I  water'd  them  all  equally 
alike  with  water  that  had  been  standing  in  a  tub  about 
two  hours  exposed  to  the  Sun." 

Later  he  made  this  proposal  for  the  feeding  of  cattle : 

"I  think  it  would  be  no  unsatisfactory  experiment 
to  fat  one  bullock  altogether  with  Potatoes; — another, 


82  MOUNT  VERNON 

altogether  with  Indian  meal; — and  a  third  with  a  mix- 
ture of  both: — keeping  an  exact  account  of  the  time 
they  are  fatting,  and  what  is  eaten  of  each,  and  of  hay, 
by  the  different  steers;  that  a  judgement  may  be 
formed  of  the  best,  and  least  expensive  mode  of  stall 
feeding  beef  for  market,  or  for  my  own  use." 

Another  kind  of  experiment  which  was  always  going 
forward  was  the  testing  of  foreign  seeds  in  Mount 
Vernon's  soil.  Washington's  fame  as  a  farmer  after 
some  years  spread  to  England  and  a  lively  correspond- 
ence grew  up  with  English  farming  enthusiasts  and 
experts.  Mount  Vernon  became  a  kind  of  experi- 
mental station  for  the  growth  of  the  sample  grains  and 
seeds  which  they  continually  sent  him. 

Thorough  in  everything,  he  said:  "I  had  rather  hear 
it  [grain]  was  delayed  than  that  it  should  be  sown  before 
everything  was  in  perfect  order  for  it;  for  it  is  a  fixed 
principle  with  me,  that  whatever  is  done  should  be  well 
done." 

Indeed  his  thoroughness  must  have  been  the  despair 
of  his  managers  and  farmers.  His  study  in  detail  ex- 
tended to  the  count  of  the  number  of  honey  locust  seeds 
in  a  quart,  and  he  found:  "a  (large)  quart  contains 
4,000  seed;  this,  allowing  ten  Seed  to  a  foot,  would 
sow,  or  plant,  four  rows  of  100  feet  each." 

His  experiments  were  not  all  to  circumvent  the 
perversity  of  soil  and  seed.  He  had  to  contend  with 
much  perverse  human  nature.  In  plain  terms  the 
overseers  of  the  various  farms  stole  and  sold  the  seed 
allotted  to  them  to  plant.  To  prevent  this  his  manager 
was  directed  to  "mix  in  a  bushel  of  well  dried  earth  as 


MOUNT  VERNON  83 

many  pints  of  seed  as  you  allow  to  an  acre,  and  let  it 
be  sown  in  this  manner.  Two  valuable  purposes  are 
answered  thereby — 1st  in  this  State,  the  seed  is  ren- 
dered unsaleable;  2dly  a  person  not  skilled  in  sow- 
ing small  seeds,  will  do  it  more  regularly  when  thus 
mixed." 

Tobacco  was  the  purchase  crop  of  the  colony,  in  a 
sense  the  legal  tender,  and  as  such  every  planter  was 
obliged  to  raise  it.  Washington  began  his  farming  at 
Mount  Vernon  with  large  acreages  of  the  leaf,  but  he 
very  spon  discontinued  it,  and  said:  "I  make  no  more 
of  that  article  than  barely  serves  to  furnish  me  with 
goods."  Eventually  the  estate  raised  large  crops  of 
wheat,  corn,  oats,  hay,  flax,  buckwheat,  potatoes, 
clover,  hemp,  saintfoin,  and  bailey. 

His  attention  to  the  advisability  of  growing  other 
crops  was,  perhaps,  not  wholly  on  account  of  the  vital 
tax  tobacco  laid  upon  the  land.  It  may  have  been  in 
discouragement  as  well  with  the  parasites  which  de- 
stroyed his  plants,  for  he  wrote  a  friend  that  this  crop 
"is  assailed  by  every  villainous  worm  that  has  had  an 
existence  since  the  days  of  Noah  (how  unkind  it  was  of 
Noah,  now  that  I  have  mentioned  his  name,  to  suffer 
such  a  brood  of  Vermin  to  get  a  birth  in  the  Ark)  but 
perhaps  you  may  be  as  well  of  as  we  are — that  is,  have 
no  Tobacco  for  them  to  eat,  and  there  I  think  we  nicked 
the  Dogs." 

In  addition  to  selected  breeds  of  plough  and  draft 
horses,  Samson,  Magnolia,  Leonidas,  Traveller,  and 
other  stallions  "covered"  mares  on  the  place  "with 
pastureage  and  a  guarantee  of  foal."  The  roads  on 
and  about  Mount  Vernon  were  familiar  with  the  lei- 


84  MOUNT  VERNON 

surely  progress  of  yoked  oxen  which  were  driven  until 
their  eighth  year,  when  they  were  fattened  for  the 
market.  The  meadows  took  a  decorative  effect  from 
the  flocks  of  sheep  and  from  the  grazing  beef  cattle 
which  were  branded  on  the  right  shoulder  with  their 
owner's  initials  "  G.  W." 

Washington  kept  before  himself  and  his  overseers 
always  the  intrinsic  and  permanent  improvement  of 
his  property  rather  than  the  temporary  gain  from  a 
transient  crop:  "Hedging,  ditching,  and  putting  my 
Meadows  in  prime  order,  would  be  infinitely  more  agree- 
able to  me,  and  ultimately  more  profitable,  than  an  at- 
tempt to  encrease  my  crops  of  grain." 

Coupled  with  his  broad  outlook  on  the  scientific  side 
of  farming  was  a  liberal  policy  of  expenditure.  "I  shall 
begrudge  no  reasonable  expence  that  will  contribute 
to  the  improvement  and  neatness  of  my  Farms,"  he 
told  an  overseer  about  to  begin  his  stewardship;  "for 
nothing  pleases  me  better  than  to  see  them  in  good 
order,  and  everything  trim,  handsome  and  thriving 
about  them; — nor  nothing  hurts  me  more  than  to  find 
them  otherwise." 

Mount  Vernon  maintained  a  small  army  of  men, 
women,  and  children,  black  and  white.  The  farm  work 
was  done  by  native  labor,  for  the  most  part  slaves,  but 
the  more  finished  work  like  gardening  and  building  was 
done  almost  entirely  by  imported  and  frequently  in- 
dentured workmen.  To  support  them  all  and  to  bring 
the  land  up  taxed  Washington's  science  and  skill  in 
economy  to  the  utmost.  Every  resource  of  the  place 
was  utilized,  for  he  knew  how  to  squeeze  out  the  by- 
products. The  great  work  which  went  forward  on  the 


A  LANE  BELOW  THE  OLD   BRICK  BARN 

Leading  around  the  lower  side  of  the  Vegetable  Garden.     "At  the  foot  of  what  is 
commonly  called  the  vineyard  enclosure,"  on  the  left,  is  the  New  Tomb 


MOUNT  VERNON  85 

place  was  farming,  but  there  were  many  affiliated 
establishments. 

The  old  mill,  which  Augustine  Washington  built,  was 
improved  and  turned  out  a  quality  of  flour  so  well  ap- 
proved that  the  Mount  Vernon  label  on  the  barrel  was 
sufficient  for  the  English  officials  to  exempt  it  from  ex- 
amination as  to  grade.  His  diary  (April  8,  1760)  tells 
of  word  coming  to  the  big  house  that,  as  a  result  of  a 
heavy  night  rain,  the  mill  was  "in  great  danger  of  blow- 
ing." He  hurried  off  with  all  handstand  got  there  "just 
in  time  to  give  her  a  reprieve  for  this  time  by  wheeling 
dirt  into  the  place  which  the  water  had  wash'd."  A 
thunder- shower  held  him  at  the  mill  and  he  experi- 
mented on  "what  time  the  mill  required  to  grind  a 
bushel  of  corn,  and  to  my  Surprize  found  she  was  within 
5  minutes  of  an  hour  about  this.  Old  Anthony  at- 
tributed to  the  low  head  of  water,  but  whether  it  was  so 
or  not  I  can't  say — her  works  [being]  all  decayed  and  out 
of  Order,  which  I  rather  take  to  be  the  cause. 

"  This  bushel  of  corn  when  ground  measurd  near  a  peck 
more  Meal." 

He  rebuilt  the  mill  in  1770  and  reconstructed  the  mill 
race  in  1795.  Time  and  neglect  have  since  destroyed 
both,  and  the  creek  has  so  filled  since  that  ships  can  no 
longer  come  within  hundreds  of  yards  of  the  old  landing. 
During  the  last  century  the  ruin  was  known  as  Jack's 
Mill  from  the  name  of  the  last  miller  Washington  es- 
tablished there.  Like  Gray,  who  gave  his  name  to 
Gray's  Hill  on  the  heights  on  the  west,  he  was  one  of 
Washington's  legion,  a  recommendation  which  never 
failed  to  reach  the  heart  and  interest  of  the  commander. 

A  distillery  was  set  up  on  the  place  and  furnished 


86  MOUNT  VERNON 

liquor  for  the  hands  at  harvest  time  or  when  malaria 
gripped  them.  When  a  deposit  of  stone  was  found  it 
was  quarried  and  supplemented  the  brick-kilns  in 
furnishing  foundations  for  the  buildings.  Another  in- 
stitution was  a  huge  oven,  although  this  may  have  been 
at  his  other  mill  above  Mount  Vernon  on  Four  Mile 
Run.  When  the  price  of  wheat  and  flour  was  down  they 
were  turned  into  biscuit.  One  of  the  old  contracts 
survives,  signed  by  Washington,  and  provides  for  his 
delivery  "at  his  mill  on  Potomack  one  thousand  Barrels 
of  fine  barr  flour  & Barrels  of  good  well  baked  bis- 
cuit for  a  long  Voyage.  .  .  .  It  is  agreed  by  Geo: 
Washington  to  lend  his  Boat  to  assist  in  getting  the 
Flour  from  the  Mill  door  to  the  Ship  at  the  Mouth  of  the 
Creek." 

Second  only  to  the  productiveness  of  the  soil  was  the 
yield  of  the  waters  of  the  Potomac.  The  diaries  often 
refer  to  the  fishing  shore,  his  seins  and  his  schooner  built 
on  the  place  in  1765.  One  entry  reads:  "The  white  fish 
ran  plentifully  at  my  Sein  landing  having  catch'd  abt. 
300  in  one  Hawl."  At  another  time  "the  Herrings  run 
in  great  abundance."  Herring  was  the  staple  fish,  but 
the  Potomac  has  always  been  rich  in  a  large  variety  of 
salt  water  fish,  especially  sturgeon,  shad,  cat,  perch,  and 
rock.  The  herring  brought  "five  shillings  per  thou- 
sand" and  the  shad  "twelve  shillings  per  hundred." 
WTien  the  herring  were  abundant  they  were  salted  down 
in  barrels  for  use  on  the  place  or  for  winter  market  at  an 
advanced  price.  "A  sufficiency  of  fish  for  the  use  of  my 
own  people"  was  secured  from  "the  first  that  comes." 
There  were  repeated  orders  to  the  managers  to  send 
presents  of  fish  from  Mount  Vernon  to  friends  inland  and 


MOUNT  VERNON  87 

at  Alexandria,  and  of  the  generosity  in  both  fish  and  corn 
which  went  forth  from  the  place,  Peake,  a  manager, 
gives  this  testimony: 

"I  had  orders  from  Gen.  Washington  to  fill  a  corn 
house  every  year,  for  the  sole  use  of  the  poor  in  my 
neighborhood,  to  whom  it  was  a  most  seasonable  and 
precious  relief,  saving  numbers  of  poor  women  and 
children  from  extreme  want,  and  blessing  them  with 
plenty.  .  .  .  He  owned  several  fishing  stations 
on  the  Potomac,  at  which  excellent  herring  were  caught, 
and  which,  when  salted,  proved  an  important  article  of 
food  to  the  poor.  For  their  accomodation  he  ap- 
propriated a  station — one  of  the  best  he  had — and 
furnished  it  with  all  the  necessary  apparatus  for  taking 
herring.  Here  the  honest  poor  might  fish  free  of  ex- 
pense, at  any  time,  by  only  an  application  to  the  over- 
seer; and  if  at  any  time  unequal  to  the  labor  of  hauling 
the  seine,  assistance  was  rendered  by  order  of  the 
General." 

Writing  of  his  affairs  four  years  after  his  marriage, 
Washington  gave  this  somewhat  pessimistic  review:  "I 
doubt  not  but  you  will  be  surprized  at  the  badness  of 
their  condition  unless  you  will  consider  under  what 
terrible  management  and  disadvantages  I  found  my 
estate  when  I  retired  from  the  publick  service  of  this 
Colony;  and  that  besides  some  purchases  of  Lands 
and  Negroes  I  was  necessitated  to  make  adjoining  me 
(in  order  to  support  the  expenses  of  a  large  family),  I 
had  Provisions  of  all  kinds  to  buy  for  the  first  two  or 
three  years;  and  my  Plantation  to  stock  in  short  with 


88  MOUNT  VERNON 

every  thing; — buildings  to  make  and  other  matters 
which  swallowed  up  before  I  well  knew  where  I  was,  all 
the  money  I  got  by  marriage,  nay  more,  brought  me  in 
debt,  and  I  believe  I  may  appeal  to  your  own  knowledge 
of  my  circumstances  before." 

Mount  Vernon  was  eventually  brought  to  high  pro- 
ductiveness, but  the  scale  of  life  there  was  such  that 
rarely  did  the  farms  show  a  balance  wholly  on  the  right 
side  of  the  ledger.  Washington  had  to  look  to  his 
estate  for  other  assets  than  appeared  in  the  physical 
valuation  of  its  produce.  He  found  its  true  and  largest 
asset  in  the  fulfilled  ideal  of  private  life;  in  solving  the 
interesting  problems  of  the  planter;  in  mental  health 
and  physical  strength;  and  in  the  enjoyment  of  the  easy 
and  graceful  social  life  of  the  colonial  country  gentle- 
man, of  which  Mount  Vernon  became  a  veritable  example. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

Social  Life — Processions  of  Guests — Dinner  Parties — English 
Naval  Officers — Neighborhood  Life — The  Mansions  on  Both 
Sides  of  the  Potomac — To  Annapolis  for  the  Races — Captain 
John  Posey's  Letter — Alexandria  Associations — The  Bread 
and  Butter  Ball — Fox  Hunting — Nearby  Race  Tracks — 
Lotteries — Duelling — Mrs.  Washington's  Children,  John  and 
Martha  Custis — Dancing  Classes. 

BEFORE  the  Revolution  Mount  Vernon  bore  its 
share  of  the  open-handed  hospitality  which 
distinguished  Virginia  colonial  life.  The  brief 
call  of  visitors  whose  home  base  is  near  by  was  practi- 
cally unknown.  Distances  were  great,  travellers  came 
with  their  own  coach  and  horses  and  servants,  and  an 
arrival  meant  additional  places  at  the  master's  table 
and  in  the  servants'  hall,  additional  beds,  and  stabling 
and  feed  for  from  six  to  twelve  horses.  It  was  part  of 
the  flexible,  cordial  social  system,  and  the  hospitality 
and  provision  was  on  a  large  scale.  Every  one  was 
welcome:  brothers  and  sisters,  nephews  and  nieces, 
and  cousins  to  remote  degrees;  friends  passing  north  and 
south,  crossing  from  Maryland  to  lower  Virginia,  or 
only  on  their  way  to  the  plantation  next  beyond.  Not 
least  welcome  were  strangers,  with  and  often  without 
letters.  Washington  is  several  times  at  a  loss,  in  his 
diary,  to  recall  the  names  of  visitors  in  his  house.  But 
without  distinction  the  horses  were  sent  to  the  stables, 
the  servants  to  quarters,  and  the  visitors  were  welcomed 
to  all  the  big  house  afforded. 

80 


90  MOUNT  VERNON 

Not  less  true  of  this  period  than  a  little  later  was 
De  Chastellux's  description  of  the  guests'  reception  at 
Mount  Vernon:  :'Your  apartments  were  your  house; 
the  servants  of  the  house  were  yours;  and,  while  every 
inducement  was  held  out  to  bring  you  into  the  general 
society  of  the  drawing-room,  or  at  the  table,  it  rested 
with  yourself  to  be  served  or  not  with  everything  in  your 
own  chamber." 

The  family  were  so  rarely  alone  that  when  they  were 
it  was  a  matter  of  surprised  comment  and  record.  Day 
after  day,  year  after  year,  the  diary  details  the  seemingly 
never-ending  procession  of  guests.  Here  is  a  week  in 
August,  1769,  which  is  not  unlike  other  weeks  in  other 
years : 

10  Mr.  Barclay  dined  with  us  again  as  did  Mr.  Power,  and 

Mr.  Geo.  Thornton — 

11  Lord  Fairfax  &  Colo.  Geo.  Fairfax  dined  with  us — 

12  Mr.  Barclay  dined  with  us  this  day  also 

13  We  dined  with  Lord  Fairfax — 

14  Colo.   Loyd,   Mr.   Cadwallader   &  Lady,   Mrs.   Dalton   & 

Daughter  &  Miss  Terrett  dind  with  us 

15  Had  my  horses  brought  in  to  carry  Colo.  Loyd  as  far  as 

Hedges  on  his  return  home  &  rid  with  him  as  far  as  Sleepy 
Creek — returned  to  Dinner  &  had  Mr.  Barclay  &  a  Mr. 
Brown  to  dine  with  me — 

16  Horses  returnd  from  carrying  Colo.  Loyd —    Mr.  Barclay, 

Mr.  Goldsbury,  Mr.  Hardwick,  Mr.  Jno.  Lewis  &  Mr.  Wr. 
Washington  Junr.  dined  here — 

17  Mr.  Jno.  Lewis,  &  Mr.  W.  Washington  Junr.  dined  here — 

We  drank  Tea  with  My  Lord — 

18  Mr.  Barclay,  Mr.  Woodrow  &  Mr.  Wood  dined  here — My 

Lord  ye  two  Colo.  Fx's  &  others  drank  Tea  here 

The  dining-room  was  not  large  and  one  wonders  how 
it  held  them  all,  for  in  addition  to  those  enumerated 


MOUNT  VERNON  91 

there  were  Colonel  and  Mrs.  Washington,  Jack  and 
Patty  Custis,  and  relatives  and  house  guests.  The  week 
quoted  above  shows  only  continual  entertainment.  The 
numbers  there  given  were  indeed  comparatively  small. 
On  one  occasion  Washington  reached  home  from  Williams- 
burg  and  "found  Mrs.  Bushrod,  Mrs.  W.  Washington  and 
their  families  here — also  Mr.  Boucher  Mr.  Addison  Mr. 
Magowan  &  Doctr  Rumney."  At  another  time  he 
enters:  "The  4  Mr.  Digges  came  to  dinner  also  Colo. 
Fairfax,  Colo.  Burwell.  Messrs.  Tilghman,  Brown, 
Piper,  Adam,  Muir,  Herbert,  Peake,  and  Dr.  Rumney 
all  of  whom  stayd  all  night  except  Mr.  Peake." 

Wlien  British  ships  of  war  appeared  in  the  Potomac 
and  ascended  to  Mount  Vernon  there  was  a  general 
exchange  of  courtesy  between  house  and  ship.  A 
characteristic  entry  in  the  diary  is  that  in  July,  1770, 
when  an  English  frigate  anchored  in  the  stream:  "Sir 
Thomas  Adams  and  Mr.  Glassford  his  first  Lieutt 
Breakfasted  here —  Sir  Thos  returnd  after  it;  but 
Mr.  Glassford  dined  here  as  did  the  2d  Lieutt.  Mr. 
Sartell  Mr.  Johnston  of  Marines  Mr.  Norris  &  Mr. 
Richmore — two  Midshipmen." 

Mount  Vernon  was  the  centre  of  a  neighborhood 
life  of  much  activity.  "Neighborhood"  is  a  relative 
term.  Virginia  country  gentlemen  of  colonial  days 
called  any  man  their  neighbor  who  lived  within  a  day's 
ride.  Separated  from  Washington's  home  only  by 
Dogue's  Creek  was  Belvoir,  the  seat  of  his  lifelong 
friends  the  Fairfaxes.  They  were  his  nearest  neigh- 
bors, but  by  water  Belvoir  was  a  barge  ride  of  two  miles 
and  on  land  it  was  a  ride  of  about  eight  miles  around 
the  head  of  the  creek.  Next  beyond  Belvoir,  and 


92  MOUNT  VERNON 

separated  from  it  only  by  Gunston  Cove,  was  Gunston 
Hall,  home  of  George  Mason,  an  active  planter  on  a 
large  scale  and  a  philosophic  statesman  of  the  first 
order.  His  son  Thomson  Mason's  house,  Hollin  Hall, 
was  a  few  miles  to  the  north  of  Mount  Vernon,  beyond 
the  River  Farm  and  on  the  well-travelled  road  to 
Alexandria.  At  a  somewhat  greater  distance,  but  still 
in  the  wide  colonial  latitude  of  neighborhood,  was 
Belle  Aire,  of  which  Gunston  Hall  was  in  many  feat- 
ures a  replica,  high  on  the  hills  of  Neabsco,  the  home  of 
the  Ewells,  cousins  of  the  Washingtons,  and  a  family 
connected  by  marriage  with  William  Grayson,  Vir- 
ginia's first  Senator;  Parson  Weems,  one  of  Washington's 
early  if  not  most  reliable  biographers,  and  Doctor  James 
Craik,  Mount  Vernon  family  surgeon  and  later  Surgeon 
General  of  the  Revolutionary  Army. 

Like  many  other  colonial  country  houses  Mount 
Vernon,  Gunston  Hall,  and  Belle  Aire  are  all  set  iden- 
tically the  same  in  relation  to  the  compass,  with  each 
corner  pointing  to  one  of  the  cardinal  points.  In  this 
way  each  side  of  the  house  admits  the  sunlight  at  some 
time  during  the  day. 

Across  the  Potomac  to  the  eastward,  where  now  rises 
Fort  Washington,  was  the  estate  of  the  Digges  family 
and  their  seat  Warburton  Manor.  Washington  and 
Digges  had  a  code  of  signals  between  Mount  Vernon 
and  Warburton,  and  when  the  signal  went  up  that  there 
were  guests  on  the  way  the  handsome  barges  which 
each  house  maintained  shot  out  from  the  shores,  driven 
by  the  oars  of  gayly  liveried  black  men,  and  met  in 
midstream  to  transfer  the  visitors. 

At  Warburton  the  Washingtons  met  not  only  the 


THE  WEST  LODGE  GATES 

Seen  from  the  Mansion  across  the  Bowling  Green  and  the  intervening  meadows. 
Through  these  gate.s  Washington  drove  whenever  leaving  or  returning  home 


THE   RIVER   SHORE 

From  the  wharf.     The  high  point  of  land  in  the  distance  is  Belvoir. 
shore-line  beyond  is  Gunston, 


The  lower 


MOUNT  VERNON  93 

extensive  connection  of  the  Digges  family  but  Governor 
Eden,  Major  Fleming,  Mr.  Boucher,  who  tutored  John 
Parke  Custis,  the  Calverts,  Daniel  of  Saint  Thomas 
Jenifer,  and  other  Maryland  notables.  At  times  the 
whole  party  would  cross  the  river  for  a  hunt  and  dinner 
at  Mount  Vernon,  spend  the  night  there,  and  next  day 
press  on  in  a  body  to  Belvoir  for  further  entertainment, 
and  even  on  to  Gunston  Hall  and  Belle  Aire,  picking 
up  recruits  to  the  merry  party  enroute,  and  on  their  lei- 
surely return  dropping  them  at  their  homes  after  partak- 
ing of  renewed  hospitality. 

The  races  at  Annapolis  always  drew  the  family  from 
Mount  Vernon.  The  visit  to  the  Maryland  Capital 
gave  country  life  a  touch  of  urbanity.  On  these  oc- 
casions the  great  coach,  the  horses,  the  coachman, 
footmen,  and  postilions  were  sent  across  the  river  the 
day  before,  to  be  in  readiness  without  delay,  for  the 
arrival  of  the  master  and  mistress  next  morning  for  an 
early  start.  The  trip  was  broken  by  stops  in  Marlboro 
and  at  Mount  Airy,  home  of  the  Calverts,  who  were 
later  to  be  connected  with  the  family  at  Mount  Vernon 
by  the  marriage  of  Miss  Eleanor  Calvert  and  John 
Parke  Custis. 

Washington's  pastors  and  friends  at  Pohick  Church 
were  frequent  and  welcome  visitors  at  his  home,  among 
them  Dr.  Green,  the  Rev.  Lee  Massey,  Captain  Daniel 
McCarty  of  Cedar  Grove  on  Accotink  Creek,  Col. 
Alexander  Henderson,  Dr.  Peter  Wagener,  Col.  William 
Grayson,  Mr.  George  Johnston,  and  Mr.  Martin  Cock- 
burn  of  Springfield,  near  Gunston  Hall. 

Two  other  neighbors  within  sight  of  the  villa  were 
Thomas  Hanson  Marshall  of  Marshall  Hall  on  the  Mary- 


94  MOUNT  VERNON 

land  shore  about  two  miles  to  the  south,  and  John 
Posey  of  Rover's  Delight,  the  sentimental  name  he 
gave  his  house  on  the  Dogue  Creek  tract  later  added 
to  Mount  Vernon.  As  revealed  in  their  letters  to 
Washington  they  were  as  definitely  opposite  types  as 
could  well  be  imagined.  Marshall  was  precise,  un- 
yielding, self-sufficient,  and  admirable.  Dear  old  Posey 
was  easy-going,  dependent,  timid,  irresolute,  and  de- 
lightful. Indeed  a  single  passage  from  one  of  Posey's 
letters  sent  up  to  his  friend  Colonel  Washington  gives 
his  character  in  a  paragraph : 

"I  could  [have]  been  able  to  [have]  Satisfied  all  my 
old  Arrears,  Some  months  AGoe,  by  marrying  [an]  old 
widow  woman  in  this  County,  She  has  Large  soms 
[of]  cash  by  her,  and  Prittey  good  Es*  —  She  is  as  thick, 
as  she  is  high — And  gits  drunk  at  Least  three  or  foure 
[times]  a  weak — which  is  Dis»greable  to  me — has 
Viliant  Sperrit  when  Drunk — its  been  [a]  Great  Dis- 
pute in  my  mind  what  to  Doe, — I  believe  I  shu'd  Run 
all  Resk's — if  my  Last  wife,  had  been  [an]  Even  tem- 
per'd  woman,  but  her  Sperrit,  has  Given  me  such  [a] 
Shock — that  I  am  afraid  to  Run  the  Resk  Again,  when 
I  see  the  object  before  my  Ey[e]s  [it]  is  Disagreable."* 

The  Mount  Vernon  coach  and  horses  were  nowhere 
more  familiar  than  on  the  road  to  Alexandria.  The 
little  city  eight  miles  up  river  was  the  background  of  a 
large  part  of  Washington's  life  and  of  some  of  the  most 
important  events  of  his  career.  Here  at  one  time  he  is 
said  to  have  had  his  office  as  surveyor;  it  was  the  base  of 

*'  T  etters  to  Washington"  (Edited  by  Stanislaus  Murray  Hamilton),  published 
by  tLc  Society  of  the  Colonial  Dames  of  America,  Volume  IV,  page  66. 


MOUNT  VERNON  95 

his  departure  on  his  trips  westward  on  surveying  bound 
and  later  to  fight  in  the  wars  with  the  French,  he  repre- 
sented it  in  the  House  of  Burgesses,  he  surveyed  its 
streets,  he  was  a  member  of  the  town  council,  here  he  cast 
his  votes,  here  later  in  life  he  worshipped  at  Christ 
Church,  and  here  he  held  his  last  review.  Alexandria 
was  warehouse  and  market  town  for  the  products  of 
Mount  Vernon  farms,  its  physicians  attended  the  family 
in  illness,  and  not  only  did  the  Washingtons  enter  fully 
into  the  social  life  of  the  little  city,  but  their  friends 
there  were  in  an  intimate  sense  their  neighbors,  and 
stood  out  conspicuously  in  the  picture  of  social  life  at 
Mount  Vernon. 

The  assemblies  at  Alexandria  were  a  never-failing 
lure  to  Washington.  One  of  the  first  to  which  he  took 
Mrs.  Washington  after  their  marriage  was  thus  re- 
corded in  the  diary : 

"Went  to  a  ball  at  Alexandria,  where  Musick  and 
dancing  was  the  chief  Entertainment  however  in  a 
convenient  room  detached  for  the  purpose  abounded 
great  plenty  of  bread  and  butter,  some  biscuits,  with 
tea  and  coffee,  which  the  drinkers  of  could  not  distin- 
guish from  hot  water  sweet'ned — 

"Be  it  remembered  that  pocket  handkerchiefs  servd 
the  purposes  of  Table  cloths  &  Napkins  and  that  no 
apologies  were  made  for  either.  I  shall  therefore 
distinguish  this  ball  by  the  stile  and  title  of  the  Bread 
&  Butter  Ball." 

Repeated  like  the  responses  in  a  litany  are  these 
entries  of  Herberts,  Alexanders,  Carlyles,  Ramsays, 


96  MOUNT  VERNON 

Rumney,  Laurie,  and  other  Alexandrians  at  Mount 
Vernon,  gathered  at  random  from  a  few  months  of  the 
diary  in  1760  and  1768: 

"Just  as  we  were  going  to  Dinnr.  Capt.  Walter 
Stuart  appeared  with  Doctr.  Laurie,"  who  attended 
all  Washington's  people  by  contract  for  £15  a  year; 
"Doctr.  Craik  left  this  for  Alexandria";  "Doctr 
Laurie  dined  here";  "Returned  home  receiving  an 
invitation  to  Mrs.  Chew's  Ball  on  Monday  night  next- 
first";  "Colo.  Carlyle  dind  here";  "Return'd  home, 
Mrs.  Carlyle  accompanying  us,  the  day  being  exceeding 
fine";  "Mr.  Carlyle  (who  came  here  from  Port  Tobo. 
Court  last  night)  and  Mrs.  Carlyle  were  confin'd  here 
all  day";  "Mr.  Carlyle  and  his  wife  returnd  home"; 
"Doctr  Laurie  came  here,  I  may  say  drunk";  "Mrs. 
Washington  was  blooded  by  Doctr  Laurie";  "Sent 
Tom  and  Mike  to  Alexandria  in  my  boat  for  20  or  25 
bushels  of  oats.  Went  up  myself  there  to  Court"; 
"At  home  with  Doctr.  Rumney";  "Confined  by  rain 
with  Mr.  Fairfax  and  Mr.  Alexander" — the  city  was 
named  after  the  Alexanders  who  were  great  landholders 
on  its  site  and  in  its  vicinity;  "In  the  afternoon  went 
up  to  Mr.  Robt.  Alexander's  in  order  to  meet  Mr.  B. 
Fairfax  &  others  a  fox  Huntg";  "Returnd  home,  much 
disordered  by  a  Lax,  Griping  &  violent  straining"; 
"Sent  for  Doctr.  Rumney,  who  came  in  ye  afternoon"; 
"Doctr  still  here — &  Mr.  Ramsay  came  down  to  see 
me";  "Went  with  Colo.  Carlyle  and  our  Families  to 
Belvoir";  "Went  to  Court,"  at  Alexandria;  "Colo. 
Carlyle  &  Family  also  went  up.  Mr.  Stedlar  stay'd  & 
Sally  Carlyle";  "We  (together  wt.  Miss  Betey  Ram- 
say) went  to  Alexa.  to  a  Ball";  "Went  to  church  at 


THE   WEST  PARLOR 


THE   FAMILY   DIMNC;   ROOM 


MOUNT  VERNON  97 

Alexandria  and  Dined  at  Colo  CarlyleV;  "Went  up 
to  Alexandria  to  meet  the  Attorney-General  &  returned 
with  him,  his  Lady  and  Daughter,  Miss  Corbin  &  Majr. 
Jenifer";  "At  home  with  the  above  Company.  Colo. 
Fairfax,  his  Lady  &  Miss  Nicholas,  Colo.  West  &  his 
wife,  &  Colo.  Carlyle,  Captn.  Dalton  &  Mr.  Piper — 
the  three  last  of  whom  stayd  at  night " ;  "  Went  to  Alex- 
andria &  bought  a  Brick  layer  from  Mr.  Piper  &  re- 
turnd  to  Dinner.  In  the  afternoon  Mr.  R.  Alexander 
come";  "Miss  Manly  dind  here,  and  Mr.  Alexander 
came  in  the  evening";  "Mr.  Alexander  &  Miss  Manly 
went  away";  " Went  to  a  Ball  in  Alexandria" ;  "Went 
to  a  Purse  Race  at  Accotinck  &  returnd  with  Messrs. 
Robt.  and  George  Alexander";  "Miss  Sally  Carlyle 
came  here' ' ;  "  Went  to  Alexandria  to  see  a  ship  launched , 
but  was  dissapointed  and  came  home";  "Went  up 
again,  saw  the  ship  Launched,  stayd  all  night  to  a 
Ball";  and  so  on. 

One  of  the  great  attractions  at  Mount  Vernon  for 
Washington's  friends  was  the  hunting.  Though  the 
Potomac  has  always  been  famous  for  duck  and  fish, 
Washington  only  occasionally  went  gunning,  and  less 
often  did  he  try  his  skill  with  hook  and  line.  The  latter 
sport  was  little  in  evidence  on  this  river  where  fishing 
has  always  been  done  on  a  wholesale  scale  by  seines  and 
nets  and  traps. 

His  prime  outdoor  diversion  was  fox  hunting.  The 
pursuit  of  Brer  Fox  seems  sometimes  to  have  been  less 
an  object  in  itself  than  an  excuse  to  be  in  the  saddle 
and  to  ride  afield,  for  he  loved  to  feel  a  horse  under  him, 
and  he  rode  with  famous  skill.  He  loved  the  yelp  of 
the  pack  and  the  excitement  of  a  galloping  group  of 


98  MOUNT  VERNON 

horsemen,  and  the  hard  ride  for  hours  at  a  time  "across 
a  country  that  was  only  for  those  who  dared."  They 
justified  the  day  whatever  its  end.  It  is  inevitable 
that  he  was  "fashionably"  dressed  for  the  hunt.  His 
stepson  says  he  "was  always  superbly  mounted,  in 
true  sporting  costume,  of  blue  coat,  scarlet  waistcoat, 
buckskin  breeches,  top  boots,  velvet  cap,  and  whip 
with  long  thong." 

Some  notion  of  the  out-of-door  life  at  Mount  Vernon, 
as  well  as  the  relative  number  of  days  devoted  to  duck- 
ing and  fox  hunting  may  be  gathered  from  these  quo- 
tations from  the  diary  for  the  months  of  January  and 
February,  1769: 

"Jan.  4,  Fox  hunting;  10,  Fox  hunting;  11,  Fox  hunt- 
ing; 12,  Fox  hunting;  16,  Went  a  ducking;  17,  Fox  hunt- 
ing; 18,  Fox  hunting;  19,  Fox  hunting;  20,  Fox  hunting; 
21,  Fox  hunting;  25,  Hunting  below  Accotinck;  28,  Fox 
hunting;  Feb.  3,  Went  a  Gunning  up  the  Creek;  9,  Went 
a  Ducking;  10,  Went  a  shooting  again;  11,  Ducking  till 
Dinner;  14,  Fox  hunting;  17,  Rid  out  with  my  hounds; 
18,  Went  a  hunting  with  Doctr.  Rumney  Started  a  fox 
or  rather  2  or  3  &  catched  none — Dogs  mostly  got  after 
deer  &  never  joind;  27,  Fox  hunting." 

When  in  pursuit  of  the  fox  they  not  infrequently 
started  deer  or  bear. 

These  parties  seem  generally  to  have  drawn  from 
these  friends  and  relatives:  the  Fairfaxes,  Colonel 
Bassett,  Jack  Custis,  T.  and  W7m.  Triplet,  H.  Manley, 
Philip  and  Robert  Alexander,  William  Ramsay,  Colonel 
Fielding  Lewis,  Dr.  Rumney,  Captain  McCarty,  Lloyd 


THE  Music  ROOM 

In  the  foreground  is  the  harpsichord  which  General  Washington  imported  from 
London  for  Mrs.  Washington's  granddaughter,  Nellie  Custis 


THE  SITTING  ROOM 

Across  the  hall  from  the  Music  Room.     Beyond  the  open  door  is  the  stairway 
between  General  Washington's  Library  and  his  Bedroom 


MOUNT  VERNON  99 

Dulaney  and  his  brother,  and  Messrs.  Chichester,  Wag- 
ener,  Tilghman,  Posey,  Peake,  and  others. 

There  was  a  famous  pack  of  hounds  at  Mount  Vernon, 
in  the  kennels  down  on  the  western  slope  leading  to  the 
wharf.  Their  names  ring  across  the  years  fresh  and  in- 
spiring: Pilot,  Musick,  Countess,  Truelove,  Lawlor, 
Forrister,  Singer,  Ringwood,  Mopsey,  Cloe,  Dutchess, 
Chaunter,  Drunkard  and,  doubtless  his  son,  Tipsy. 
From  a  stable  full  of  thoroughbred  mounts  the  names  of 
Blueskin,  Valiant,  Ajax,  and  Chinkling  are  preserved. 

The  races  in  Fairfax  or  neighboring  counties  in 
Virginia  and  Maryland  were  potent  in  drawing  forth  the 
squire  of  Mount  Vernon.  He  contributed  liberally, 
entered  horses  from  his  stables,  and  occasionally  laid  a 
wager  on  the  result.  Washington  was  a  steward  of  the 
Alexandria  Jockey  Club.  Nearer  Mount  Vernon  was 
Bogg's  Race  Track  in  the  meadow  below  and  to  the 
west  of  Pohick  Church,  but  the  reader  is  left  to  wonder 
where  might  have  been  the  track  referred  to  in  the 
brief  entry:  "Went  up  to  a  Race  by  Mr.  Beckwith's  & 
lodgd  at  Mr.  Ed wd.  Paynes." 

Rainy  days  or  the  early  winter  evenings  were  devoted 
to  cards.  Washington's  account  books  indicate  that 
playing  cards  were  quickly  used  up.  The  profit  and 
loss  columns  record  his  winnings  and  losses,  which  at 
times  mounted  to  nine  pounds  at  a  sitting.  It  was  a 
liberal  age.  Not  only  was  gambling  on  a  moderate  scale 
considered  a  fashionable  diversion,  but  the  family  at 
Mount  Vernon  patronized  the  lotteries  on  various  oc- 
casions. These  institutions  were  under  distinguished 
social  and  even,  in  one  instance,  ecclesiastical  patronage. 
Among  the  many  lotteries  in  which  Washington  bought 


100  MOUNT  VERNON 

tickets  were  the  Alexandria  Street  Lottery,  "Colo. 
Byrds  Lottery,"  Peregrine  and  Fitzhugh's  Lottery,  the 
Mountain  Road  Lottery,  and  Earl  Sterling's  Land  and 
Cash  Lottery.  From  letters  and  accounts  it  would  seem 
that  the  last  was  much  trafficked  in.  One  item  is  for 
"£83  .  .  .  6 — "  for  twelve  tickets.  Washington 
took  quantities  of  Lord  Sterling's  Delaware  lottery 
tickets  and  then  resold  them.  His  agent  in  this  trans- 
action was  the  Reverend  Walter  Magowan,  of  Saint 
James  Parish,  Anne  Arundel  County,  Maryland,  who 
was  a  frequent  visitor  at  Mount  Vernon  and  was  one  of 
John  Parke  Custis'  tutors. 

One  of  the  fashionable  customs  which  was  not  toler- 
ated at  Mount  Vernon,  however,  was  duelling.  Thack- 
eray was  under  another  impression,  for  he  hinged  the 
plot  of  "The  Virginians"  on  the  challenge  sent  to  Wash- 
ington by  young  Warrington,  and  it  is  implied  that 
Washington  will  fight.  Thackeray  had  evidently  not 
read  this  letter  of  George  Mason's:  "You  express  a  fear 
that  General  Lee  will  challenge  our  friend.  Indulge  in 
no  such  apprehensions,  for  he  too  well  knows  the  senti- 
ments of  General  Washington  on  the  subject  of  duelling. 
From  his  earliest  manhood  I  have  heard  him  express  his 
contempt  of  the  man  who  sends  and  the  man  who  ac- 
cepts a  challenge,  for  he  regards  such  acts  as  no  proof  of 
moral  courage;  and  the  practice  he  abhors  as  a  relic  of 
old  barbarisms,  repugnant  alike  to  sound  morality  and 
Christian  enlightenment." 

Such  are  some  of  the  aspects  of  life  at  Mount  Vernon 
and  of  the  character  of  its  occupant  before  the  Revolu- 
tion. But  such  a  survey  would  be  incomplete  if  it 
carried  the  impression  that  so  much  social  activity 


MOUNT  VERNON  101 

diminished  interest  in  the  family  spirit,  which  in  this  in- 
stance rose  out  of  the  presence  of  Mrs.  Washington's 
two  children,  Martha  Custis  and  her  brother,  John 
Parke  Custis. 

Washington  met  the  demands  of  his  wife's  children 
with  the  same  tenderness  and  generosity  as  if  he  had 
been  their  own  father.  Martha,  or  Patty  as  she  was 
more  often  called,  was  an  invalid  all  her  short  life.  It 
was  in  large  part  for  her  that  Dr.  Green  and  Dr.  Laurie 
and  Dr.  Rumney  made  their  repeated  visits  to  Mount 
Vernon.  Once,  in  their  hope  to  relieve  the  child,  "Joshua 
Evans,  who  came  here  last  night,  put  an  Iron  ring  upon 
Patey  (for  fits)." 

Mrs.  Washington  took  her  children  on  the  trips  away 
from  Mount  Vernon,  though  once  she  made  the  experi- 
ment of  leaving  Jacky  at  home,  as  she  wrote  her  sister, 
Mrs.  Bassett,  and  with  such  anxiety  to  herself  that  the 
boy  probably  accompanied  his  mother  on  future  trips: 
*'I  carried  my  little  patt  with  me  and  left  Jacky  at  home 
for  a  trial  to  see  how  well  I  could  stay  without  him 
though  we  ware  gon  but  wone  fortnight  I  was  quite  im- 
patient to  get  home.  If  I  at  aney  time  heard  the  doggs 
barke  or  a  noise  out,  I  thought  thair  was  a  person  sent 
for  me." 

There  was  a  tutor  at  Mount  Vernon  to  instruct  Patty 
and  Jack  in  their  letters  and  figures,  but  the  popular 
occasions  of  instructions  were  the  days  when  Mr.  Chris- 
tian, the  dancing  master,  arrived  on  his  way  over  his 
itinerary,  which  extended  the  length  of  the  Potomac's 
tidewater  valley.  The  classes  were  held  at  Mount 
Vernon  and  Gunston  Hall  in  turn,  when  all  the  children 
of  the  neighborhood  assembled  to  be  taught  the  rollick- 


102  MOUNT  VERNON 

ing  country  dances  or  the  formal  minuet.  When  the 
afternoon  had  been  danced  away  and  candles  were 
brought,  Mr.  Christian  retired,  and  the  young  people 
romped  at  "Button  to  get  Pauns  for  Redemption"  or 
"Break  the  Pope's  Neck."  The  fun  was  carried  on 
with  " sprightliness  and  Decency,"  but  the  "Pauns" 
were  potent  to  wring  "kisses  from  the  Ladies." 

Washington  was  fond  of  dancing  and  he  took  an  in- 
terest in  the  dancing  classes  and  the  after  sport  of  the 
children.  Though  his  manner  was  gentle  and  kindly, 
his  presence  was  so  imposing  that  young  people  as  well 
as  their  elders  were  inclined  to  become  reserved  when 
with  him.  The  reminiscence  of  an  old  Virginia  lady  of 
ninety-one,  who  in  her  twelfth  year  romped  under  the 
eyes  of  Colonel  and  Mrs.  Washington,  is  a  likely  one: 
"Often,  when  at  their  games  in  the  drawing-room  at 
night — perhaps  romping,  dancing  and  noisey — they  [the 
children]  would  see  the  General  watching  their  move- 
ments at  some  side  door,  enjoying  their  sport,  and  if  at 
any  time  his  presence  seemed  to  check  them,  he  would 
beg  them  not  to  mind  him,  but  go  on  just  as  before,  en- 
couraging them  in  every  possible  way  to  continue  their 
amusement  to  their  hearts'  content." 

The  little  family  kept  together  until  1768,  when  the 
Reverend  Walter  Magowan,  of  lottery  fame,  who  had 
been  tutoring  the  Custis  children,  left  for  England.  The 
education  of  girls  was  not  a  serious  matter  in  those  days, 
and  Miss  Patty  was  considered  sufficiently  accomplished 
in  Mr.  Magowan's  rudiments  and  the  graces  Mr.  Chris- 
tian had  given  her.  With  a  man  it  was  different.  He 
had  to  be  educated.  So  in  the  same  year  Jack  went  over 
to  Annapolis  under  the  care  of  Reverend  Jonathan 


MOUNT  VERNON  103 

Boucher,  who  had  several  other  young  gentlemen  under 
his  charge.  During  the  next  five  years  Jack  was  away 
from  home  much  of  the  time,  either  at  Annapolis  or  at 
King's  College  in  New  York. 

Running  parallel  with  Washington's  private  life  at 
Mount  Vernon,  throughout  the  pre-Revolutionary 
period,  was  an  active  public  life,  for  he  met  and  recog- 
nized the  responsibilities  of  citizenship  always  in  full. 
The  period  of  this  public  service  was  so  much  over- 
shadowed by  his  earlier  and  later  military  career  and  by 
his  supreme  service  under  the  new  Republic,  that  it  is 
easy  to  think  of  Mount  Vernon  at  this  time  merely  as  a 
home  of  an  industrious,  pleasure-loving  planter.  Bound 
up  in  his  home  though  he  was,  there  emanated  from 
Mount  Vernon  wider  and  more  unselfish  interests  than 
those  which  were  merely  social  and  domestic. 


CHAPTER  IX 

Washington  in  Colonial  Public  Life — Vestryman  of  Truro  Parish 
— Drawing  the  Parish  Lines  to  Capture  Mount  Vernon — 
Attendance  at  Pohick  Church — As  a  Churchman — As  Burgess 
in  the  Assembly  at  Williamsburg — Trips  Between  Mount 
Vernon  and  the  Capital — Late  Summers  at  Bath  Springs — A 
Trip  to  New  York— Charles  Willson  Peale— The  First  Por- 
trait. 

BEFORE   the   Revolution   Mount   Vernon   was 
represented  in  the  civic  life  of  the  neighborhood 
and  colony  by  Washington's  long  tenure  as  a 
vestryman  of  Truro  Parish  and  as  a  member  of  the 
House  of  Burgesses  at  Williamsburg. 

The  Revolution  divorced  the  Church  and  State,  but 
until  that  time  the  Episcopal  Church  was  a  civic  estab- 
lishment in  the  colony  as  well  as  in  England.  The 
parish  was  created  by  the  Assembly,  and  by  its  direc- 
tion the  parish  was  surveyed  and  the  first  vestry  was 
elected  by  the  "freeholders  and  housekeepers"  of  the 
county.  Thereafter  the  vestry  constituted  a  tight 
little  self-perpetuating  corporation,  by  itself  filling  all 
vacancies  in  its  own  body.  But  the  vestry  was  unfail- 
ingly representative  of  the  "ablest  and  most  discreet" 
citizens  of  the  neighborhood.  Under  authority  and 
direction  of  the  vestry  deeds  were  recorded,  the  tithe 
lists  made  up,  the  tithes  collected,  the  poor  cared  for, 
and  the  landmarks  renewed  by  the  process  called  "pro- 
cessioning." To  the  churchwardens  fell  "the  duty  of 
binding  orphans  and  other  indigent  children  as  Ap- 

101 


MOUNT  VERNON  105 

prentices,"  and  the  obligation  of  looking  after  the 
apprentices'  morals,  their  education  and  their  initiation 
into  the  "Art  and  mystery"  of  shoemaker,  carpenter, 
cooper,  etc. 

The  vestry  of  Truro  Parish  was  probably  the  most 
distinguished  in  the  colony.  Of  its  members  eleven 
sat  in  the  House  of  Burgesses;  two  of  them,  the  Fair- 
faxes, were  of  His  Majesty's  Council  for  Virginia;  an- 
other member,  George  Mason,  author  of  the  Virginia 
Bill  of  Rights  and  the  Constitution  of  the  State  of 
Virginia,  was  one  of  the  most  enlightened  men  in  the 
colonies;  and,  finally  and  first,  George  Washington. 

Pohick,  the  parish  church  of  Truro  Parish,  was  first 
situated  on  Michael  Reagan's  Hill  on  the  road  from 
Alexandria  and  the  north  to  Colchester  and  the  south, 
due  west  of  Mount  Vernon  by  a  drive  of  about  nine 
miles.  When  in  1767  the  present  surviving  edifice  was 
projected,  it  was  built  at  a  point  selected  by  Washington 
two  miles  nearer  his  home. 

Washington  was  first  elected  vestryman  October  25, 
1762.  The  family  name  was  not  new  to  the  Truro 
Parish  register,  for  his  father,  Augustine  Washington, 
entered  the  same  vestry  in  November,  1735.  The 
date  is  valuable  in  connection  with  establishing  the 
period  when  the  family,  including  George  at  the  age  of 
three  years,  came  first  to  Mount  Vernon. 

Some  confusion  has  marked  the  various  statements  as 
to  where  Washington  and  his  family  worshipped  and 
when  and  to  what  vestries  he  belonged.  The  confusion 
results  from  an  interesting  parish  contest  for  the  posses- 
sion of  Mount  Vernon. 

Truro  Parish  was  divided  by  act  of  Assembly,  in 


106  MOUNT  VERNON 

February,  1765,  creating  the  new  parish  of  Fairfax. 
Dogue's  Run  was  a  part  of  the  dividing  line,  and  Mount 
Vernon  found  itself  in  the  new  parish,  cut  off  from  old 
Pohick.  This  act  raised  immediate  and  general  protest 
from  the  parent  parish.  Mount  Vernon  was  the  bone 
of  contention.  Washington  himself  seems  to  have  been 
averse  to  being  legislated  out  of  Pohick  and  out  of  his 
association  with  Colonel  Fairfax,  Colonel  Mason,  and 
his  other  neighbors  of  the  vestry,  for  he  was  one  of  a 
committee  of  Burgesses  who  introduced  the  act,  passed 
the  following  May,  which  moved  the  northern  boundary 
of  the  parish  from  Dogue's  Creek  on  the  west  side  of 
Mount  Vernon  to  a  line  running  with  Little  Hunting 
Creek  to  the  northeast  of  the  mansion.  Mount  Vernon 
was  thus  restored  to  Pohick,  where  it  has  remained  ever 
since. 

Meanwhile,  on  its  creation  in  May,  1765,  the  new 
parish  of  Fairfax  had  at  once  elected  Washington  a 
vestryman.  On  the  realignment  of  the  parishes  four 
months  later  he  resigned  from  Fairfax  and  was  again 
elected  to  the  vestry  of  Truro.  Washington  was  con- 
tinuously reflected  to  the  same  vestry  and  attended 
Pohick  Church  with  a  high  average  of  regularity  until 
the  Revolution  took  him  away  from  home. 

The  Mount  Vernon  coach  was  in  evidence  at  Pohick 
from  1759  to  1774,  often  accompanied  by  a  chaise  and  by 
gentlemen  on  horseback,  for  Washington  seems  to  have 
been  persuasive  in  inducing  his  usually  numerous  house 
guests  to  accompany  him  and  Mrs.  Washington  to 
church.  At  least  one  effort  has  been  made  to  establish 
Washington's  lukewarmness  as  a  churchman.  The 
author  thereof  cites  an  average  of  fifteen  entries  of 


MOUNT  VERNON  107 

church  attendance  each  year  between  1760  and  1773. 
He  assumes  that  Washington  never  went  to  church 
that  he  did  not  record  it  hi  his  diary.  Even  so  he 
might  have  thought  better  of  Washington's  fifteen 
annual  trips  to  Pohick  it  he  had  experienced  year  after 
year  the  condition  of  colonial  Virginia  roads  and  realized 
the  futility  of  trying  to  force  a  great  chariot  through  a 
round  trip  of  from  fourteen  to  eighteen  miles  of  Fairfax 
clay  during  wet  and  winter  weather.  In  further  justice 
to  Washington's  practical  interest  in  the  church  it  is 
fair  to  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  Pohick  Church 
was  not  open  every  Sunday  of  the  year.  The  rector 
"supplied"  one  and  sometimes  two  other  churches. 
Moreover,  Washington  made  additional  trips  to  Pohick 
Church  to  attend  meetings  of  the  vestry.  "During 
the  eleven  years  of  his  active  service  from  February, 
1763,  to  February,  1774,"  says  the  parish  historian, 
"thirty  one  'vestries'  were  held,  at  twenty  three  of 
which  he  is  recorded  as  being  present.  On  the  eight 
occasions  when  he  was  absent,  as  we  learn  from  his  diary 
or  other  sources,  once  he  was  sick  in  bed,  twice  the 
House  of  Burgesses,  of  which  he  was  a  member,  was 
in  session,  and  three  other  times  certainly,  and  on  the 
two  remaining  occasions  probably,  he  was  out  of  the 
County." 

Washington  bought  pew  twenty -eight,  in  the  centre  of 
the  church,  before  the  Communion  table,  on  the  north 
aisle.  Lund  Washington  bought  number  twenty-nine, 
next  behind,  but  George  Washington  later  bought  it 
from  him.  The  Sunday  attendance  from  Mount 
Vernon  required  these  two  great  square  box-like  pews, 
which  Washington  kept  all  his  life,  even  when  the 


108  MOUNT  VERNON 

parish  fell  upon  neglected  days  and  Pohick  was  without 
a  regular  rector,  and  he  and  his  family  worshipped  at 
Christ  Church,  Alexandria. 

Churchgoing  really  played  a  large  part  in  the  social 
side  of  Virginia  colonial  life.  Philip  Vickers  Fithian, 
in  his  Journal,  gives  a  graphic  idea  of  this  phase : 

"There  are  three  grand  divisions  of  time  at  the  church 
on  Sundays;  Viz:  before  Service  giving  and  receiving 
letters  of  business,  reading  Advertisements,  consulting 
about  the  price  of  Tobacco,  Gram,  &c,  and  settling 
either  the  lineage,  Age  or  qualities  of  favorite  Horses. 
2.  In  the  church  at  Service,  prayers  read  over  in  haste, 
a  Sermon,  seldom  under  and  never  over  twenty  minutes, 
but  always  made  up  of  sound  morality,  or  deep-studied 
Metaphy sicks.  3.  After  Service  is  over,  three  quarters 
of  an  hour  spent  in  strolling  round  the  church  among 
the  crowd  in  which  time  invitations  are  given  by  gentle- 
men to  go  home  with  them  to  dinner." 

Which  gives  significance  to  a  certain  item  in  the  speci- 
fications for  the  building  of  Pohick  Church:  "And  the 
said  Daniel  French  doth  further  agree  to  build  two 
Horse-Blocks  with  each  two  flights  of  Steps;  to  fix  six 
benches  for  the  people  to  sit  on  under  the  trees;  and  to 
clear  and  remove  all  the  rubbish  and  litter  from  off  the 
Church  Lott,  so  as  to  fix  it  for  the  Reception  of  the 
Congregation;  and  to  have  those  additional  works  done 
by  the  time  appointed  for  the  finishing  of  the  Church." 

As  already  seen,  Mount  Vernon  had  to  wait  for  its 
new  mistress  on  its  master's  first  appearance  in  the 
House  of  Burgesses.  After  that  session  in  1759  he  was 
returned  as  Burgess  every  year  until  the  Revolution 


MOUNT  VERNON  109 

made  his  attendance  impossible;  at  first,  as  stated,  by 
Frederick  County,  but  from  1765  by  Fairfax. 

Washington  did  not  exert  his  influence  on  the  floor 
of  the  House  as  an  orator.  His  first  effort  there  at  a 
speech  was  a  fiasco,  but  justified  its  failure  by  produc- 
ing the  celebrated  tribute  from  Mr.  Speaker  Robinson. 
When  Washington  rose  to  reply  to  the  Speaker's  pro- 
fession of  the  colony's  thanks  for  his  distinguished  mili- 
tary services  in  the  West,  he  blushed,  stammered,  and 
was  mute.  Mr.  Robinson  came  to  his  rescue  with:  "Sit 
down, Mr.  Washington,your  modesty  equals  your  valour, 
and  that  surpasses  the  power  of  any  language  I  possess." 

His  genius  showed  itself  rather  in  leadership  in  com- 
mittee, in  sound  advice,  and  especially  in  the  drafting 
of  legislative  papers.  When  John  Parke  Custis,  at  this 
time  a  boy  at  Mount  Vernon,  was  later  elected  to  the 
Assembly,  Washington  wrote  to  him  his  own  conception 
of  the  duty  of  the  Burgess : 

"I  do  not  suppose  that  so  young  a  senator  as  you  are, 
little  versed  in  political  disquisitions,  can  yet  have  much 
influence  in  a  popular  assembly,  composed  of  Gentln. 
of  various  talents  and  of  different  views.  But  it  is  in 
your  power  to  be  punctual  in  your  attendance  (and 
duty  to  the  trust  reposed  in  you  exacts  it  of  you),  to 
hear  dispassionately  and  determine  coolly  all  great 
questions.  To  be  disgusted  at  the  decision  of  questions, 
because  they  are  not  consonant  to  your  own  ideas,  and 
to  withdraw  ourselves  from  public  assemblies,  or  to 
neglect  our  attendance  at  them,  on  suspicion  that  there 
is  a  party  formed,  who  are  inimical  to  our  cause,  and  to 
the  true  interest  of  our  country,  is  wrong,  because  these 


110  MOUNT  VERNON 

things  may  originate  in  a  difference  of  opinion;  but, 
supposing  the  fact  is  otherwise,  and  that  our  suspicions 
are  well  founded,  it  is  the  indespensable  duty  of  every 
patriot  to  counteract  them  by  the  most  steady  and 
uniform  opposition." 

The  sessions  of  the  Burgesses  were  held  in  the  spring 
after  the  roads  had  settled  and  in  the  fall  before  winter 
opened  them  again.  The  trips  back  and  forth  between 
Mount  Vernon  and  Williamsburg  were  made  by  coach 
as  a  rule,  especially  when  Mrs.  Washington  accom- 
panied her  husband;  otherwise  in  his  chaise  or  "chair," 
or  on  horseback,  attended  by  his  servants. 

The  distance  was  generally  covered  in  four  days. 
The  diary  sets  forth  the  dates  and  the  stoppages  which 
indicate  the  routes  followed;  first  in  October,  1768: 

19.  Set  of  on  my  Journey  to  Williamsburg   &  reachd   Colo. 

Henry  Lees  to  Dinner. 

20.  Detaind  there  all  day  by  Rain. 

21.  Reachd  Fredericksburg,  found  Warren  Washington  &  Ca. 

there. 

22.  Dined  at  Parkers  Ordy.  &  lodgd  at  Mr.  Benja.  Hubbards, 

Colo.  Lewis  also. 

23.  Dined  at  the  Causey  &  got  to  Colo.  Bassetts. 

24.  Dined  at  Josh.  Valentine's  sent  Chairs  &  Horses  over  James 

River,  &  lodged  in  Wms.burg  ourselves. 

and  returning  the  early  part  of  next  month: 

6.  Left  Williamsburg  &  dined  &  lodgd  at  Colo.  Bassetts. 

7.  Set  out  for  home  with  Betsy  Dandridge.     Dined  at  King 

Wm.  Court  Ho.  &  lodgd  at  Mr.  Wm.  Ayletts. 

8.  Dined  at  Parkers  and  lodgd  at  Fredericksburg. 

9.  Reached  home  in  about  7  hours  &  an  half,  found  Doctr. 

Rumy.  and  Miss  Ramy.  here. 


MOUNT  VERNON  111 

The  round  trip  another  year,  in  1774,  was  made  in 
this  fashion,  starting  in  May: 

12.  Set  off  with  Mrs.  Washington  for  Williamsburg.     Dined 

at  Dumfries  and  lodged  at  Col.  Lewis's  in  Fredericksburg. 

13.  At  Fredericksburg  all  day.     Dined  at  Col.  Lewis's    and 

spent  the  evening  at  Weedon's. 

14.  Dined  at  Roys  Ordinary  and  lodged  at  Tods  Bridge. 

15.  Breakfasted  at  Ruffins  Ferry  and  dined  and  lodged  at  Col. 

Bassett's. 

16.  Came  to  Williamsburg,  dined  at  the  Governor's,  and  spent 

the  evening  at  Mrs.  Campbell's. 

And  returning  in  June: 

18.  Dined  at  Mrs.  Dawson's  and  came  up  to  Col.  Bassetts  in 

the  afternoon. 

19.  At  Colo.  Bassett's  all  day. 

20.  Set  off  from  thence  on  my  return  home.     Dined  at  Todd's 

Bridge  and  lodged  at  Hubbard's. 

21.  Breakfasted  at  the  Boiling  Green,  dined  and  lodged  at  Col. 

Lewis's  in  Fredericksburg. 

22.  Reached  home  to  a  late  dinner,  after  breakfasting  at  Acquia. 

Many  more  days  were  sometimes  consumed,  however, 
as  in  the  spring  of  1768,  when  Washington  loitered  on 
the  journey  homeward  over  twenty-five  days.  The 
diary  furnishes  a  graphic  sketch  of  Washington  at  play : 

May 

6.  Rid  to  the  Plantations  near  Williamsburg  &  dined  at  Mr. 

Valentine's. 

7.  Came  up  to  Colo.  Bassett's  to  Dinner. 

8.  Went  to  Church  &  returnd  to  Dinner. 

9.  Went  a  Fox  hunting  and  catched  a  Fox  after  35  minutes 

chase;  returnd   to   Dinner   &  found  the  Attorney,   his 
Lady  &  daughter  there. 


112  MOUNT  VERNON 

10.  Rid  to  the  Buck  House  &  returnd  to  Dinner;  after  which 

went  a  dragging  for  sturgeon. 

11.  Dined  at  the  Globe  with  Mr.  Davis. 

12.  Went  to  New  Kent  Court  with  Colo.  Bassett. 

13.  Went  after  sturgeon  &  a  gunning. 

14.  Went  to  my  Plantation  in  King  William  by  water  and  dragd 

for  Sturgeon  &  catchd  one. 

15.  Rid  to  see  Colo.  Bassetts  meadows  at  Roots's. 

16.  Fishing  for  Sturgeon  from  Breakfast  to  Dinner  but  catchd 

none. 

17.  Rid  to  Buck  House  &  returnd  to  Dinner. 

18.  Did  the  same  &  got  my  Chariot  &  Horses  over  to  Claibornes. 

19.  Went  a  shooting  &  hair  huntg.  with  the  Hounds  who  started 

a  Fox  which  we  catchd. 

20.  Set  of  from  Colo.  Bassetts  for  Nomony,  crossed  over  to 

Claibornes;  from  thence  by  Frazer's  Ferry  to  Hobs  hole 
dining  at  Webbs  Ordinary. 

21.  Reachd  my  Brothr.  John's  who  &  his  wife  were  up  the 

Country.     Crossed  over  to  Mr.  Booths. 

22.  Went  to  Church  (Nomony)  &  returnd  to  Mr  Booths  to 

Dinner,  who  was  also  from  home  in  Gloucester.     Mr. 
Smith,  the  Parson,  dind  with  us. 

23.  At  Mr  Booth's  all  day  with  Revd.  Mr.  Smith.     My  Car- 

penter &  House  People  went  to  work  at  my  Mill  repairing 
the  Dams,  hightening  of  them  &  opening  the  Race. 

24.  Came  up  to  Pope's  Creek  &  staid  there  all  day. 

25.  Got  up  to  my  Brother  Sams  to  Dinner,  found  Mrs.  Wash- 

ington &c.  there. 

26.  Remaind  at  my  Brother  Sams  where  my  Brother  Jno.  came, 

as  also  Mr.  Lawr.  Washington  &c  to  Dinner. 

27.  Dined  at  Mr.  L.  Washingtons  with  the  Compy.  at  my 

Bro. 

28.  Went  to  Boyd's  hole  &  returnd  to  my  Brothers  to  Dinr. 

where  we  found  Colo.  Lewis  &  my  Br.  Charles. 

29.  Went    to    St.    Pauls   church    &   Dined   at  my    Brothers. 

The  bitch  Chanter  brought  five  Dog  puppies  &  3  Bitch 
ditto    which    were    named    as    follows:  viz — Forrester, 


NORTH  AND  SOUTH  LANES 

Taken  in  the  North  Lane  near  the  Spinning  House  and 
showing  the  Sun-dial  in  the  Circle 


MOUNT  VERNON  113 

Sancho,  Ringwood,  Drunkard,  and  Sautwell — and  Chan- 
ter, Singer  &  Busy. 

30.  Went  fishing  &  dined  under  Mr.  L.  Washington's  store. 

81.  Returnd  home  crossing  at  Hooes  Ferry — through  Port 
Tobacco. 

The  trips  to  Williamsburg  represent  Washington's 
principal  absences  from  Mount  Vernon  during  the  fif- 
teen years  next  after  his  marriage.  Occasionally  he  took 
the  family  to  the  Bath  Warm  Springs,  but  on  only  two 
other  occasions  did  he  go  farther  from  his  beloved  home. 
In  1770  he  went  to  the  Ohio  and  in  1773  to  New  York. 

The  Warm  Spring  trips  were  made  partly  in  hopes  of 
benefiting  Patsy  Custis,  and  partly  to  counteract  the 
malaria  imbibed  at  Mount  Vernon,  against  which  the 
"Bark"  seems  not  to  have  been  wholly  effective. 
August  was  the  month  selected  for  the  sojourn  at  the 
Springs.  Of  his  earliest  experience  there  he  said: 
"Lodgings  can  be  had  on  no  terms  but  building  for 
them.  .  .  .  Had  we  not  succeeded  in  getting  a 
tent  and  a  marquee  from  Winchester  we  should  have 
been  in  a  most  miserable  station  here."  Lloyd 
Dulaney's  inquiry  about  the  rent  of  his  house  there  in 
1771  would  suggest  that  he  built  at  once,  though  his 
diary  clearly  establishes  the  building  of  a  new  house, 
kitchen,  and  stable  there  in  1784.  The  journey  to  the 
Ohio  in  the  autumn  of  1770  was  made  to  see  the  bounty 
lands  which  he  and  his  companions  in  arms,  during  the 
campaigns  against  the  French  and  their  Indian  allies, 
had  received  from  the  Government  for  their  military 
services.  He  was  accompanied  by  his  friend,  neighbor, 
and  fellow  campaigner,  "Dr.  Craik,  his  servant,  two  of 
mine,  with  a  led  horse  and  baggage."  They  departed 


114  MOUNT  VERNON 

October  5th  and  on  December  1st  he  "Reachd  home, 
being  absent  from  it  nine  weeks  and  one  day,"  longer 
than  he  was  away  from  Mount  Vernon  at  any  other 
time  between  1759  and  1775. 

The  occasion  of  his  trip  to  New  York  City  in  May  and 
June,  1773,  was  to  place  Jack  Custis  in  King's  College. 
He  was  absent  twenty-nine  days,  only  four  of  which 
were  spent  in  New  York.  The  journey  northward  con- 
sumed sixteen  days,  the  return  nine  days.  In  going  and 
in  returning  he  crossed  the  Potomac  at  the  ferry  above 
Mount  Vernon,  landing  on  Piscataway,  and  making 
his  first  stop  with  Mr.  Calvert  of  Mount  Airy.  The 
points  touched  during  the  sixteen  days'  outward  journey 
were  Annapolis,  Rockhall,  Chestertown,  "Georgetown 
on  Sassafras,"  Newcastle,  Wilmington,  Chester,  Phila- 
delphia, Burlington,  Trenton,  Princeton,  Bound  Brook, 
"Lord  Sterling's  at  Baskin's  Ridge,"  and  "Elisabeth 
town."  Southward  he  stopped  at  New  Ark,  Amboy, 
Brunswick,  Princeton,  Bristol,  Philadelphia,  "the  Sorrel 
House,  13  miles  from  it,"  "the  Ship  Tavern,  34  off," 
the  Sign  of  the  Bull,  "  13  miles  from  ye  Ship,"  Lancaster, 
York  Town,  "  the  Sign  of  the  Buck,  14  miles  from  York," 
Suttons,  Slades,  "Baltimore  Town,"  the  Widow  Ram- 
say's, and  Mount  Airy,  and  he  "reached  home  to  dinner 
about  2  o'clock." 

The  earliest  portrait  of  Washington  was  painted  at 
this  time  at  Mount  Vernon.  He  wrote  Dr.  Boucher,  in 
May,  1772 :  "  Inclination  having  yielded  to  Importunity, 
I  am  now  contrary  to  all  expectation  under  the  hands  of 
Mr.  Peale;  but  in  so  grave — so  sullen  a  mood — and  now 
and  then  under  the  influence  of  Morpheus,  when  some 
critical  strokes  are  making,  that  I  fancy  the  skill  of  this 


MOUNT  VERNON  115 

Gentleman's  Pencil,  will  be  put  to  it,  in  describing  to  the 
World  what  manner  of  man  I  am." 

The  artist  was  Charles  Willson  Peale  and  the  portrait 
was  the  three-quarter  length  picture  in  the  uniform  of  a 
Virginia  colonel.  On  "May  19.  Found  Mr.  Peale  and 
J.  P.  Custis.—  20.  I  sat  to  have  my  picture  drawn. — 
21.  I  set  again  to  take  the  drapery.—  22.  Set  for 
Mr.  Peale  to  finish  my  face."  The  artist  found  subjects 
also  in  Mrs.  Washington,  Martha  and  Jack  Custis. 
These  three  productions,  however,  were  in  miniature. 
The  cost  of  the  four  paintings  was  £57.4.0. 

So  passed  the  life  at  Mount  Vernon,  domestic  and 
social,  private  and  public,  during  the  years  which  were 
for  Washington  among  the  happiest,  if  not  quite  the 
happiest,  he  ever  enjoyed.  The  colony  was  at  peace 
and  was  blessed  with  the  serenity  of  a  period  practically 
without  history.  What  Washington  wrote  to  a  relative 
in  England  was  typical  of  this  whole  period:  "I  do  not 
know  that  I  can  muster  up  one  tittle  of  news  to  com- 
municate. In  short,  the  occurances  of  this  part  of  the 
world  are  at  present  scarce  worth  reciting;  for,  we  live  in 
a  state  of  peaceful  tranquility  ourselves,  so  we  are  at 
very  little  trouble  to  inquire  the  operations  against  the 
Cherokees,  who  are  the  only  people  that  disturb  the  re- 
pose of  this  great  continent,  and  who,  I  believe,  would 
gladly  accomodate  differences  upon  almost  any  terms." 

Not  yet  apparent  was  the  significance  of  the  increas- 
ing visits  of  the  fathers  of  the  colony  to  Mount  Vernon 
and  their  earnest  discussion  with  its  first  citizen;  nor 
was  it  obvious  as  yet  what  would  issue  from  the  mass  of 
correspondence  rolling  out  of  Mount  Vernon  library  to 
every  corner  of  the  clustering  colonies. 


CHAPTER  X 

Last  Years  Before  the  Revolution — Changes  in  the  Family  and 
in  the  Neighborhood — Death  of  Martha  Custis — The  Fair- 
faxes Leave  for  England — Sale  at  Belvoir — Jack  Custis 
Marries  Eleanor  Calvert — Courtly  Letters — Mount  Vernon 
Adapts  Itself  to  the  Stamp  Act — The  Fairfax  Resolves — 
Notable  Conferences  at  Mount  Vernon — Preparing  to  En- 
large the  House — Eccentric  Charles  Lee — Preparations  for 
the  Impending  Struggle — The  Eyes  of  the  Colonies  on  Mount 
Vernon — The  Richmond  Convention — To  the  Congress  in 
Philadelphia — Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Army. 

THE    last    two    years    before    the    Revolution 
brought    many    changes    to    Mount    Vernon. 
They    affected   the   house   itself,   the   family 
circle,  and  the  neighborhood,  and  the  issues  of  which,  in 
discussion  and  in  correspondence,  it  was  the  storm  centre 
were  the  most  significant  in  character  and  effect  in  the 
history  of  our  country. 

The  first  grief  that  shadowed  the  house  in  more  than 
twenty  years  came  with  the  death  of  Martha  Parke 
Custis,  Mrs.  Washington's  daughter,  the  "Patsy"  and 
"little  patt"  of  their  letters.  She  had  been  an  invalid 
all  her  brief  life,  which  endeared  her  the  more  to  her 
devoted  stepfather.  On  the  night  of  June  19,  1773,  he 
wrote  briefly  in  his  diary:  "About  five  o'clock  poor 
Patey  Custis  died  suddenly,"  and  in  a  letter  to  his  wife's 
brother-in-law,  Colonel  Bassett:  "It  is  an  easier  matter 
to  conceive  than  to  describe  the  distress  of  this  Family ; 
especially  that  of  the  unhappy  Parent  of  our  Dear  Patsy 

116 


MOUNT  VERNON  117 

Custis,  when  I  inform  you  that  the  Sweet  Innocent  Girl 
Entered  into  a  more  happy  &  peaceful  abode  than  any 
she  has  met  with  in  the  afflicted  Path  she  hitherto  has 
trod."  He  begs  that  Mrs.  Washington's  mother  come 
to  make  her  home  at  Mount  Vernon  and  concludes:  "I 
do  not  purpose  to  add  more  at  present,  the  end  of  my 
writing  being  to  inform  you  of  this  unhappy  change." 
He  was  about  to  start  on  a  journ,ey  into  the  West  with 
the  Governor,  Lord  Dunmore,  but  he  gave  this  up  and 
remained  with  the  bereaved  mother,  his  own  "dear 
Patsy,"  as  he  was  wont  to  call  her.  Martha  Custis  left 
her  entire  and  very  considerable  fortune  to  her  step- 
father. 

This  year,  too,  Mount  Vernon  lost  its  long-time 
neighbors  and  friends,  the  Fairfax  family,  and  there- 
after the  diary  is  silent  of  fox-hunting  and  dining  and 
visiting  across  the  creek  at  the  merry  old  mansion. 
George  William  Fairfax  fell  heir  to  the  ancestral  estates 
in  England,  placed  Belvoir  in  the  care  of  Colonel  Wash- 
ington, who  knew  it  and  loved  it  better  than  any  other 
man  after  its  proprietor,  and  departed  America  never  to 
return.  Washington  and  his  wife  were  with  Colonel 
Fairfax  and  his  family  during  their  last  hours  at  Belvoir, 
saw  them  embark,  and  from  the  noble  height  waved  sad 
adieux  as  the  ship  sailed  away  to  southward  around  the 
sharp  turn  in  the  Potomac. 

Though  Colonel  Fairfax  never  returned  to  America, 
he  and  Washington  kept  up  an  intimate  correspondence 
for  the  rest  of  his  life.  In  1774  most  of  the  chattels  at 
Belvoir  were  disposed  of  at  public  sale,  and  Washington 
bought  at  the  prices  below  and  brought  to  Mount 
Vernon  the  following  items: 


118  MOUNT  VERNON 

1  mahogany  shaving  desk  4  £,  1  settee  bed  and  furniture  13  £, 
4  mahogany  chairs  4  £,  1  chamber  carpet  1  £  Is,  1  oval  glass  with 
gilt  frame  in  the  "green  room"  4  £  5s,  1  mahogany  chest  and 
drawers  in  Mrs.  Fairfax's  chamber  12  £  10s,  1  mahogany  sideboard 
12  £  5s,  1  mahogany  cistern  and  stand  4  £,  1  mahogany  voider,  a 
dish  tray  and  knife  tray  1  £  10s;  1  Japan  bread  tray  7s,  12  chairs 
and  3  window  curtains  from  dining  room  31  £,  1  looking  glass  and 
gilt  frame  13  £  5s,  2  candle  sticks  and  a  bust  of  Shakespeare  1  £ 
6s,  3  floor  carpets  in  gentlemen's  room  3  £  5s,  1  large  carpet  11  £, 
1  mahogany  wash  desk,  Sic.,  1  £  2s  6d;  1  mahogany  close  stool 

1  £  10s,  2  matresses  4  £  10s,  1  pair  andirons,  tongs,  fender  and 
shovel,  3  £  10s;  1  pair  andirons,  tongs,  fender  and  shovel,  3  £ 
17s  6d;   1  pan-  andirons,  tongs,  fender  and  shovel,  1  £  17s  6d;  1 
pan*  dog  irons  in  great  kitchen  3  £,  1  hot  rache  4  £,  1  roasting  fork 
2s  6d,  1  plate  basket  3s,  1  mahogany  spider  make  tea  table  1  £ 
lls,  1  screen  10s,  1  carpet  2  £  15s,  1  pair  bellows  and  brush  11s, 

2  window  curtains  2  £,  1  large  marble  mortar  1  £  Is,  1  hot  rache 
in  cellar  1  £  7s  6d,  2  mahogany  card  tables  4  £,  1  bed,  pan-  of 
blankets,  19  coverlets,  pillows,  bolsters  and  1  mahogany  table,  11  £; 
bottles  and  pickle  pots  14s,  1  dozen  mountain  wine  1  £  4s,  4  chariot 
glasses  frames  12s  6d,  12  pewter  water  plates  1  £. 

Colonel  Fairfax  presented  Colonel  and  Mrs.  Wash- 
ington with  the  entire  suite  of  furniture  in  "the  Blue,  or 
Dressing  Room." 

The  Fairfaxes  were  moderate  loyalists.  Not  only 
was  it  not  on  account  of  the  presaging  troubles  with  the 
mother  country  that  Colonel  Fairfax  returned  to  Eng- 
land, but  throughout  the  war  he  extended  liberal  assist- 
ance to  Americans  in  England,  to  which  Washington 
testified  when  the  confiscation  of  his  American  property 
was  threatened: 

"I  hope,  I  trust,  that  no  act  of  Legislation  in  the  State 
of  Virginia  has  affected,  or  can  affect,  the  property  of 
this  gentleman,  otherwise  than  in  common  with  that  of 


MOUNT  VERNON  119 

every  good  and  well  disposed  citizen  of  America.  It  is  a 
well  known  fact  that  his  departure  for  England  was  not 
only  antecedant  to  the  present  rupture  with  Great 
Britian,  but  before  there  was  the  most  distant  prospect 
of  a  serious  dispute  with  that  country,  and  if  it  is 
necessary  to  adduce  proof  of  his  attachment  to  the  in- 
terests of  America  since  his  residence  there,  and  of  the 
aid  he  has  given  to  many  of  our  distressed  countrymen 
in  that  kingdom,  abundant  instances  may  be  produced, 
not  only  by  the  Gentlemen  alluded  to  in  his  letter  of 
December  5,  1779,  but  by  others  that  are  known  to  me, 
and  on  whom  justice  to  Col.  Fairfax  will  make  it  nec- 
essary to  call,  if  occasion  should  require  the  facts  be 
ascertained." 

John  Parke  Custis  had  now  grown  into  young  man- 
hood, and  he,  too,  was  soon  lost  to  Mount  Vernon,  but 
under  consoling  circumstances.  He  had  spent  the  last 
few  years  away  from  home  at  college  or  under  private 
tutors,  with  results  that  often  tried  and  vexed  his  step- 
father, who  once  said:  "I  can  govern  men,  but  I  can- 
not govern  boys."  He  supposed  Jack  was  finally 
safely  anchored  when  he  placed  him  with  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Boucher  in  Annapolis.  There  were  frequent  visits 
home  from  there,  but  the  way  lay  past  the  door  of 
Mount  Airy,  the  seat  of  the  Calverts  of  Maryland,  and 
within  was  an  irresistible  temptation  in  the  person  of 
Miss  Eleanor. 

When  the  young  people's  intentions  became  obvious 
the  politest  letters  passed  between  Mount  Vernon  and 
Mount  Airy.  Washington  wrote  Benedict  Calvert,  the 
young  lady's  father: 


120  MOUNT  VERNON 

"My  son-in-law  and  ward,  Mr.  Custis,  has,  as  I  have 
been  informed,  paid  his  addresses  to  your  second  daugh- 
ter, and,  having  made  some  progress  in  her  affections, 
has  solicited  her  in  marriage.  How  far  a  union  of  this 
sort  may  be  agreeable  to  you,  you  best  can  tell;  but 
I  should  think  myself  wanting  in  candor,  were  I  not 
to  confess,  that  Miss  Nellie's  amiable  qualities  are 
acknowledged  on  all  hands,  and  that  an  alliance  with 
your  family  will  be  pleasing  to  his.  ...  It  may 
be  expected  of  me,  perhaps,  to  say  something  of  prop- 
erty; but,  to  descend  to  particulars,  at  this  time,  must 
seem  rather  premature.  In  general,  therefore,  I  shall 
inform  you,  that  Mr.  Custis's  estate  consists  of  about 
fifteen  thousand  acres  of  land,  a  good  part  of  it  adjoining 
the  city  of  Williamsburg,  and  none  of  it  forty  miles  from 
that  place;  several  lots  in  the  said  city;  between  two  and 
three  hundred  negroes ;  and  about  eight  or  ten  thousand 
pounds  upon  bond,  and  in  the  hands  of  his  merchants. 
This  estate  he  now  holds  independent  of  his  mother's 
dower;  which  will  be  an  addition  to  it  at  her  death;  and, 
upon  the  whole,  it  is  such  an  estate  as  you  will  readily 
acknowledge  ought  to  entitle  him  to  a  handsome 
portion  with  a  wife.  But  as  I  should  never  require  a 
child  of  my  own  to  make  a  sacrifice  of  himself  to  interest 
so  neither  do  I  think  it  incumbent  on  me  to  recommend 
it  as  a  guardian.  At  all  times  when  you,  Mrs.  Calvert, 
or  the  young  ladies,  can  make  it  convenient  to  favor  us 
with  a  visit,  we  should  be  happy  in  seeing  you  at  this 
place." 

To  which  Mr.  Calvert  replied  with  the  grace  which 
became  one  of  the  family  of  the  Lords  Baltimore: 


MOUNT  VERNON  121 

"I  Received  the  favour  of  yours  of  the 3d  Instant  by  Mr 
Custis  which  I  feel  myself  highly  honoured  by,  and  am 
truly  happy  in  your  Approbation  of  that  young  Gentle- 
mans  future  Union  with  my  Second  Daughter.  I  should 
be  dead  to  Parental  feelings,  were  I  untouched  with  the  po- 
lite manner  in  which  you  are  pleased  to  compliment  Nel- 
ly's Qualifications ;  Being  her  father,  it  would  illy  become 
me  to  sound  her  praise,  perhaps  I  might  be  deemed  partial 
—I  shall  therefore  only  say,  That  it  has  ever  been  the 
Endeavor  of  her  Mother  and  me,  to  bring  her  up  in  such 
a  manner,  as  to  ensure  the  happiness  of  her  future  Hus- 
band, in  which,  I  think,  we  have  not  been  unsuccessful— 
if  we  have,  we  shall  be  greatly  disappointed.  .  .  . 
Mr.  Custis  I  must  acknowledge,  is,  as  a  match  for  my 
Daughter,  much  superior  to  the  sanguine  hopes  which  a 
parents  fondness  may  have  at  any  time  encouraged  me  to 
indulge.  ...  I  can  only  add,  on  this  subject,  that, 
from  the  largeness  of  my  family  (having  ten  Children)  no 
very  great  fortune  can  be  expected :  What  that  may  be 
depends  upon  the  Issue  of  my  present  depending  Claim. 
Of  this,  Sir,  however  be  assured,  nothing  in  my  power 
shall  be  left  undone  to  promote  so  pleasing  a  Union- 
Nelly's  portion,  as  far  as  my  personal  Estate  will  go,  shall, 
at  least,  be  equal  to  any  of  my  other  Children,  nor  will 
you,  Sir,  I  am  sure,  desire  more — I  shall  at  all  times,  when 
convenient,  be  happy  in  bringing  my  family  to  wait  on 
Mrs  Washington,  and  equally  glad  to  see  her  &  Miss  Cus- 
tis with  you  at  Mount  Airy,  where  I  hope  it  will  suit  you 
to  call  (next  week  early)  in  your  way  to  Annapolis,  and 
I  will  have  the  pleasure  of  attending  you  thither. 
"  I  am  Dear  Sir  Your  most  obed1  Humble  Serv1 

' '  BENEDT    CALVERT 


122  MOUNT  VERNON 

"I  expect  the  pleasure  of  the  Governors  &  Mr.  Hay- 
woods  Company  a  Saturday  Evening,  they  stay  with 
me  till  Monday  Morning,  when  they  set  off  for  Mr. 
Bouchers  where  they  propose  to  dine,  and  then  go  for 
Annapolis,  I  shall  attend  them  there  &  return  home  in 
the  Evening,  without  it  will  sute  you  to  come  here  on 
Sunday  and  go  up  with  them 

"B  C" 

At  the  end  of  January,  in  1774,  the  chariot  was 
ferried  across  to  Warburton,  and  Colonel  Washington 
followed  the  next  day  in  the  great  barge  and  rolled  in 
state  to  the  Calvert  seat.  Mrs.  Washington  still  felt 
the  loss  of  her  daughter  too  keenly  to  enter  into  the 
bridal  gayety.  The  fashion  of  the  two  colonies  were 
there,  and  on  February  3d  the  nuptials  were  celebrated 
amid  much  festivity.  Jack  was  not  wholly  lost  to 
Mount  Vernon,  however,  for  he  and  his  wife  made  their 
home  at  Abingdon,  a  plantation  on  the  Virginia  side  of 
the  Potomac  about  four  miles  above  Alexandria  and 
formerly  the  home  of  their  friend  Robert  Alexander.  A 
large  portion  of  their  time  and  their  children's  was 
spent  at  Mount  Vernon  only  a  dozen  miles  away.  It  is, 
indeed,  one  of  the  traditions  that  "if  any  horse  of  the 
stables  were  started  from  Abingdon,  and  left  to  his  own 
free  will,  it  would  be  found  in  due  time  at  the  entrance 
of  Mount  Vernon." 

The  passage  of  the  Stamp  Act  imposing  duties  on 
goods  imported  into  the  colony,  though  at  first  con- 
sidered as  a  domestic  difficulty  which  would  yield  to 
argument,  was  nevertheless  resisted  at  once  by  the 
colonists.  Washington  was  among  the  first  by  per- 


MOUNT  VERNON  1£3 

suasion  and  example  to  oppose  the  injustice  of  the 
measure. 

The  non-importation  Resolves  were  the  weapon  with 
which  the  colonists  hoped  to  change  England's  attitude. 
They  were  the  basis  of  a  continual  stream  of  letters  from 
Mount  Vernon  advancing  at  first  the  formation  of  a 
local  non-importation  association,  after  the  pattern  of 
that  established  at  Philadelphia,  and  later  the  more 
aggressive  attitude  which  culminated  in  the  conventions 
of  Fairfax  County,  Williamsburg,  Richmond,  and  the 
two  Congresses  at  Philadelphia. 

How  Washington's  principles  bore  upon  the  life  of  his 
own  household  is  seen  in  his  instructions  to  his  London 
correspondents.  In  sending  one  of  his  orders  to  Robert 
Gary  &  Company  for  domestic  goods  in  1769,  he  wrote: 

"If  there  are  any  articles  contained  in  either  of  the 
respective  invoices  (paper  only  excepted)  which  are 
taxed  by  act  of  Parliament  for  the  purpose  of  raising  a 
revenue  in  America,  it  is  my  express  desire  and  request, 
that  they  may  not  be  sent,  as  I  have  very  heartily 
entered  into  an  association  (copies  of  which  I  make  no 
doubt  you  have  seen,  otherwise  I  should  have  enclosed 
one)  not  to  import  any  article  which  now  is,  or  hereafter 
shall  be  taxed  for  this  purpose  until  the  said  act  or  acts 
are  repealed.  I  am  therefore  particular  in  mentioning 
this  matter  as  I  am  fully  determined  to  adhere  relig- 
iously to  it,  and  may  perhaps  have  wrote  for  some  things 
unwittingly  which  may  be  under  these  circumstances." 

This  intention  to  import  nothing  for  his  home  upon 
which  Parliament  had  imposed  a  tax  is  repeated  in  an- 
other order  on  London  in  1770: 


124  MOUNT  VERNON 

"You  will  perceive,  in  looking  over  the  several  in- 
voices, that  some  of  the  goods  there  required,  are  upon 
condition,  that  the  act  of  Parliament  imposing  a  duty  on 
tea,  paper,  &c.  for  the  purpose  of  raising  a  revenue  in 
America,  is  totally  repealed ;  and  I  beg  the  favor  of  you 
to  be  governed  strictly  thereby,  as  it  will  not  be  in  my 
power  to  receive  any  articles  contrary  to  our  non-im- 
portation agreement,  which  I  have  subscribed,  and  shall 
religiously  adhere  to,  and  should,  if  it  were,  as  I  could 
wish  it  to  be,  ten  times  as  strict." 

Washington  and  his  neighbor,  George  Mason,  were 
the  leaders  in  the  more  aggressive  attitude  of  the  out- 
raged colonists.  In  1774  there  were  continual  trips  be- 
tween Mount  Vernon  and  Gunston  Hall  for  conferences, 
and  there  eventuated  the  famous  Resolves,  written  by 
Mason,  and  presented  at  a  convention  of  the  inhabi- 
tants of  Fairfax  County  in  July,  at  which  Washington 
presided.  In  this  meeting  was  the  germ  of  the  Second 
Continental  Congress  and  in  the  Resolves  was  the  in- 
spiration of  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 

Washington  recorded  this  occasion  with  a  simplicity 
which  is  the  despair  of  the  student;  but  in  the  light  of 
what  was  accomplished  and  its  effect  on  the  destiny  of  a 
people,  the  few  words  are  epic: 

"July  17.  Col.  Mason  came  in  the  afternoon,  and  staid  all  night. 
18.  Went  up  to  Alexandria  to  a  meeting  of  the  County. 
Returned  in  the  evening." 

After  the  Fairfax  convention  he  was  at  Mount  Vernon 
only  long  enough  to  pack  up  and  hurry  to  the  conven- 
tion at  Williamsburg,  where  the  astonishing  conduct  of 
General  Gage  at  Boston  was  discussed.  The  nominally 


MOUNT  VERNON  125 

silent  delegate  from  Fairfax  showed  the  warmth  of  his 
ardor  when  need  be,  as  now,  when,  in  "the  most 
eloquent  speech  that  ever  was  made,"  he  declared  with 
fire  and  force:  "I  will  raise  one  thousand  men,  subsist 
them  at  my  own  expense,  and  march  myself  at  their 
head  for  the  relief  of  Boston." 

Hurrying  home  he  discovered  the  house  full  of  com- 
pany, but  he  found  time  for  the  Fairfax  sale,  letters  to 
England  and  elsewhere,  the  arrangement  of  domestic 
affairs,  and  hurried  off  on  the  last  day  of  the  month  for 
the  first  Congress  at  Philadelphia.  The  day  before  his 
departure  Mount  Vernon  was  the  scene  of  another 
significant  conference  with  George  Mason,  Patrick 
Henry,  and  Edmund  Pendleton.  They  "came  in  the 
evening  and  stay'd  all  night."  Next  day,  August  31st, 
"All  the  above  gentlemen  dined  here;  after  which  with 
Colo.  Pendleton  and  Mr.  Henry,  I  set  out  on  my  journey 
to  Philadelphia."  Pendleton  said  that  before  they  set 
out  Martha  Washington  "talked  like  a  Spartan  mother 
to  her  son  on  going  to  battle.  'I  hope  you  will  all  stand 
firm — I  know  George  will,'  she  said." 

When  Washington  returned  home  it  was  to  pick  up 
again  the  threads  of  the  life  he  loved  so  well.  He  began 
at  this  time  to  make  a  reality  of  plans  for  the  enlarge- 
ment and  perfection  of  his  house  and  grounds,  which 
had  long  been  maturing  in  his  mind. 

The  house  stood  in  1773  exactly  as  he  found  it  when 
he  took  up  his  home  there  with  his  brother  Lawrence, 
save  for  the  repairs  he  made  in  anticipation  of  his 
marriage.  The  intervening  fourteen  years  of  domestic 
and  social  life  brought  out  the  limitations  of  the  villa. 
It  began  to  call  again  for  repairs  after  so  many  years  of 


126  MOUNT  VERNON 

hard  use.  Washington  desired  a  more  ambitious  and 
commodious  residence,  and  as  early  as  1773  planned  the 
house  as  it  appears  to-day.  This  included  the  extension 
of  the  length  of  the  house  by  the  additions  at  each  end 
measuring  the  full  width  of  the  original  house,  thirty- 
two  feet  by  twenty-two  feet,  which  would  extend  the 
house  by  forty -four  feet  in  length. 

The  new  building  operations  were  under  way  in  the 
fall  of  1773,  as  indicated  by  a  quaint  letter  from  a  joiner 
in  Washington's  employ: 

"SiR/ 

"I  am  apprehensive  that  in  the  Bill  of  Scantling 
that  I  sent  you  it  was  order*?  so  as  to  have  the  Sleepers 
of  Both  the  additions  to  Ly  Length  ways  with  the  house 
if  so  the  will  not  be  Right  by  that  means  the  floor  will  be 
aCross  and  the  Gelling  plank  the  Length  of  the  addition 
will  not  answer  the  intended  purpose  of  haveing  no 
heading  Joints  in  the  Lower  floors,  the  S[l]eepers  Need 
not  be  More  then  16  feet  Long  to  Join  on  a  Summer 
in  the  Middle  that  must  be  Layd  Length  ways  of 
House,  the  Sleepers  Must  be  the  same  Breadth  & 
thickness  as  them  Mention?  in  the  Bill  &  the  Two 
Summers  10  by  14  and  22  foot  Long 

"I  am  Sir  Yr  Most  Hum1?  Servfc 
"  GOING  LANPHIEB 
"New  Church  Octr  16:  1773 
"N  B  I  preposd  from  the 
beginning  to  Lay  the  floor- 
ing &  seeling  Jousts  Length 
way  of  the  House  it  will  be 
a  Great  Means  to  Strength- 
en the  additions  .       .  G  L" 


MOUNT  VERNON  127 

Washington  no  sooner  began  the  cherished  plans  than 
the  war  drew  him  away.  He  left  Lund  Washington 
in  charge  of  Mount  Vernon,  and  the  letters  that  passed 
back  and  forth  tell  somewhat  of  the  progress  and  dura- 
tion of  the  work.  At  least  one  of  the  new  additions  was 
completed  within  two  years,  for  Washington  wrote 
home  from  Camp  at  Cambridge,  August  20,  1775:  "I 
wish  you  would  quicken  Lanphier  and  Sears  about  the 
Dining  Room  Chimney  Piece  (to  be  executed  as  men- 
tioned in  one  of  my  last  letters)  as  I  would  wish  that  end 
of  the  House  compleatly  finished  before  I  return." 

Lund  Washington  referred  to  the  "new  room"  in  his 
letters  to  his  chief  in  1775,  as  when,  on  October  15th,  he 
wrote:  "As  to  pulling  down  the  plastering  in  the  new 
room,  it  will  not  make  a  days  odds  in  his  doing  the  room. 
Mrs.  Washington  seems  desireous  that  whatever  is  to  be 
done  to  it,  may  be  at  once  that  she  may  get  into  it  this 
winter";  and  again  on  December  10th:  "Sears  has 
now  painted  the  dining  room  twice  over  and  the  new 
room  once." 

The  further  progress  of  Washington's  extensive  plans 
for  his  dwelling  and  for  the  outbuildings,  the  gardens 
and  their  walls,  will  appear  later.  At  this  time  in- 
terruptions checked  the  work.  Mount  Vernon  seemed 
destined  to  see  its  master's  carefully  planned  efforts  in 
its  behalf  carried  on  in  his  absence  now  as  when  he  first 
put  it  in  order  to  receive  his  wife. 

During  the  winter  of  1774-1775  he  was  frequently 
from  home.  The  house  was  the  scene  of  continual  con- 
ferences of  the  leaders  of  thought  and  action  in  the 
neighborhood  and  in  the  colony  at  large.  George 
Mason  was  there;  William  Grayson,  later  first  Senator 


128  MOUNT  VERNON 

for  Virginia  but  now  arming  tke  Independent  Militia  of 
Prince  William  with  funds  he  was  promised  on  these 
visits;  Edmund  Pendleton  and  Daniel  of  Saint  Thomas 
Jenifer,  the  latter  now  as  Major  Jenifer,  neighbor, 
coming  to  be  directed  in  militia  organization,  but  later 
to  live  in  history  as  Signer  of  the  Declaration  of  In- 
dependence for  Maryland ;  Charles  Lee,  British  and  un- 
balanced, accompanied  by  his  hounds,  which  he  in- 
sisted on  feeding  in  the  dining-room;  Horatio  Gates, 
Major  now  but  Adjutant  General  in  June  next;  old 
companions  in  the  French  War,  who,  scenting  powder, 
found  their  way  to  their  former  chief's  seat  "  in  search 
of  courage  and  sympathy";  delegations  from  the  various 
counties  who  came  to  offer  Washington  the  command 
of  their  Independent  Militia  "should  they  be  obliged  to 
have  recourse  to  arms  to  defend  their  King  and  coun- 
try"; and  others  in  numbers,  patriots  for  the  most  part, 
who  recognized  in  the  master  of  Mount  Vernon  their 
hope  in  the  impending  struggle. 

Washington  found  time  for  his  visitors  and  for  endless 
letters,  and  for  the  obligations  placed  upon  him  by  the 
neighborhood  and  the  colony.  He  was  still  a  member 
of  the  House  of  Burgesses.  As  such  he  attended  the 
Virginia  convention  "in  the  old  church  in  the  town  of 
Richmond,"  in  March  (1775)  and  brought  home  his  ap- 
pointment to  represent  Virginia  in  the  Second  Continen- 
tal Congress  and  the  thrilling  story  of  Mr.  Henry's  per- 
oration: "I  know  not  what  course  others  may  take,  but 
as  for  me,  give  me  liberty  or  give  me  death!" 

Less  dramatically  but  not  less  fervently  he  wrote  his 
brother,  John  Augustine,  his  own  "full  intention  to  de- 
vote my  life  and  fortune  in  the  cause  we  are  engaged  in." 


" 


•  '•P/a^i:'-  ttf-jAe-  •  cfcforul  •  cfory  • 


MOUNT  VERNON  129 

He  had  scarcely  returned  to  Mount  Vernon  when 
word  followed  him  from  the  low  country  that  the  Royal 
Governor  had  confiscated  the  powder  stored  in  Wil- 
liamsburg,  and  he  rode  instantly  to  Fredericksburg  to 
calm  the  six  hundred  men  who  had  rushed  to  arms. 
Riders  came  to  his  door  with  messages  from  the  militia 
of  various  counties  offering  to  serve  under  his  command. 
The  pulse  of  the  people  was  indeed  throbbing. 

Toward  the  end  of  April  his  chariot  rolled  away  again 
to  Philadelphia.  There  was  not  probably  either  in  his 
heart  or  Mrs.  Washington's  a  full  understanding  of  what 
their  good-byes  meant.  He  left  to  be  absent  a  few 
weeks,  at  most,  as  Virginia's  delegate  in  the  Congress. 
He  remained  under  pressure  of  a  unanimous  Assembly  to 
accept  the  command  of  the  independent  army  of  the 
colonies. 

At  this  moment  of  such  significance  and  obligation  his 
thoughts  flew  at  once  to  Mount  Vernon.  He  wrote  his 

"dearPatsey": 

/ 

"I  am  now  set  down  to  write  you  on  a  subject,  which 
fills  me  with  inexpressible  concern,  and  this  concern 
is  greatly  aggravated  and  increased,  when  I  reflect  upon 
the  uneasiness  I  know  it  will  give  you.  It  has  been  de- 
termined in  Congress,  that  the  whole  army  raised  for  the 
defense  of  the  American  cause  shall  be  put  under  my 
care,  and  that  it  is  necessary  for  me  to  proceed  im- 
mediately to  Boston  to  take  upon  me  the  command  of 
it.  ...  I  shall  feel  no  pain  from  the  toil  or  the 
danger  of  the  campaign;  my  unhappiness  will  flow  from 
the  uneasiness  I  know  you  will  feel  from  being  left  alone. 
I  therefore  beg,  you  will  summon  your  whole  fortitude, 


130  MOUNT  VERNON 

and  pass  your  time  as  agreeably  as  possible.  Nothing 
will  give  me  so  much  sincere  satisfaction  as  to  hear  this, 
and  to  hear  it  from  your  own  pen." 

To  Jack  Custis  he  wrote : 

"  My  great  concern  upon  this  occasion  is,  the  thought 
of  leaving  your  mother  under  the  uneasiness  which  I 
fear  this  affair  will  throw  her  into;  I  therefore  hope,  ex- 
pect, and  indeed  have  no  doubt,  of  your  using  every 
means  in  your  power  to  keep  up  her  spirits,  by  doing 
everything  in  your  power  to  promote  her  quiet. 
At  any  time,  I  hope  it  is  unnecessary  for  me  to  say,  that 
I  am  always  pleased  with  yours  and  Nelly's  abidence  at 
Mount  Vernon;  much  less  upon  this  occasion,  when  I 
think  it  absolutely  necessary  for  the  peace  and  satis- 
faction of  your  mother;  a  consideration  which  I  have  no 
doubt  will  have  due  weight  with  you,  and  require  no  ar- 
gument to  enforce." 

To  his  brother  John  Augustine: 

"I  am  now  to  bid  adieu  to  you,  and  to  every  kind  of 
domestic  ease,  for  a  while.  I  am  embarked  on  a  wide 
ocean,  boundless  in  its  prospect,  and  in  which,  perhaps, 
no  safe  harbor  is  to  be  found.  I  have  been  called  upon 
by  the  unanimous  voice  of  the  Colonies  to  take  the  com- 
mand of  the  Continental  army;  an  honor  I  have  neither 
sought  after,  nor  desired,  as  I  am  thoroughly  convinced, 
that  it  requires  greater  abilities  and  much  more  ex- 
perience, than  I  am  master  of,  to  conduct  a  business  so 
extensive  in  its  nature,  and  arduous  in  its  execution. 
But  the  partiality  of  the  Congress,  joined  to  a  political 


MOUNT  VERNON  131 

motive,  really  left  me  without  a  choice;  and  I  am  now 
commissioned  a  General  and  Commander-in-chief  of  all 
the  forces  now  raised,  or  to  be  raised,  for  the  defense  of 
the  United  Colonies.  That  I  may  discharge  the  trust 
to  the  satisfaction  of  my  employers,  is  my  first  wish;  that 
I  shall  aim  to  do  it,  there  remains  as  little  doubt  of. 
How  far  I  shall  succeed,  is  another  point;  but  this  I 
am  sure  of,  that,  in  the  worst  event,  I  shall  have  the 
consolation  of  knowing,  if  I  act  to  the  best  of  my  judge- 
ment, that  the  blame  ought  to  lodge  upon  the  ap- 
pointers,  not  the  appointed,  as  it  was  by  no  means  a 
thing  of  my  seeking,  or  proceeding  from  any  hint  of  my 
friends.  ...  I  shall  hope  that  my  friends  will 
visit  and  endeavor  to  keep  up  the  spirits  of  my  wife, 
as  much  as  they  can,  as  my  departure  will,  I  know,  be  a 
cutting  stroke  upon  her;  and  on  this  account  alone  I 
have  many  very  disagreeable  sensations.  I  hope  you 
and  my  sister,  (although  the  distance  is  great)  will  find 
as  much  leisure  this  summer  as  to  spend  a  little  time  at 
Mount  Vernon." 

Washington  did  not  see  Mount  Vernon  again  for  six 
years. 


CHAPTER  XI 

Mount  Vernon  During  the  Revolution — Mrs.  Washington's 
Absences  in  Camp — Lund  Washington  in  Charge  of  the  Estate 
— The  Door  of  Hospitality  Kept  Open  by  the  Absent  Master 
— Postal  Facilities — British  on  the  Potomac — Designs  on 
Mount  Vernon — Mrs.  Washington  Flees  for  a  Night — Tarl- 
ton's  Raiders — Lund  Propitiates  the  British — The  General's 
Rebuke — Building  Operations — The  Northeast  and  South- 
west Additions  Completed — Outbuildings  Built  and  Rebuilt 
— The  Portico — Belvoir  Burned — The  General's  Brief  Visit 
After  Six  Years'  Absence — Death  of  John  Parke  Custis — 
Washington  Adopts  Two  of  His  Children — Two  Years  Later 
Resigns  Commission  and  Returns  Home  and  to  Private  Life. 

MOUNT  VERNON  was  indeed  desolate  to 
Martha  Washington  as  she  read  the  message 
of  dreaded  triumph  which  placed  the  destinies 
of  the  country  in  her  husband's  hands.  The  sacrifice 
was  hers.  In  less  than  two  years  she  had  seen  her  family 
completely  disintegrate:  her  daughter  lost  by  death;  her 
son  by  marriage;  her  husband  by  the  call  to  the  military 
service  of  his  country.  A  sympathetic  sense  of  this 
prompted  Washington  to  write  those  first  letters,  after 
receiving  his  commission,  to  her  relatives  and  his,  beg- 
ging them  to  go  to  Mount  Vernon  and  comfort  his 
lonely  wife. 

Jack  Custis  and  his  wife  came  down  frequently  from 
Abingdon,  as  the  years  rolled  by,  bringing  the  growing 
family  of  babies  to  their  affectionate  grandmother: 
Elisabeth  Parke  the  first;  then  Martha  Parke,  named 
for  Mrs.  Washington;  then  Eleanor  Parke,  named  for 

132 


MOUNT  VERNON  133 

her  mother  and  hurried  from  her  frail  arms  to  Mount 
Vernon  to  be  nursed  by  sturdy  Mrs.  Anderson,  wife  of 
the  English  steward;  and  finally  the  first  boy,  named 
for  the  only  father  he  ever  knew,  George  Washington 
Parke.  Mrs.  Washington's  brothers  and  sisters,  the 
Dandridges  and  Bassetts,  journeyed  up  from  New 
Kent,  and  friends  from  Alexandria  and  the  neighboring 
estates  on  both  sides  of  the  Potomac  came  to  break  Mrs. 
Washington's  loneliness.  The  house  was  "seldom  with- 
out company"  while  she  was  there  and  "our  stables  are 
always  full  of  horses,"  read  the  letters  from  home  to  the 
General. 

Mount  Vernon  was  in  charge  of  Lund  Washington, 
as  manager  for  the  General,  with  whom  no  doubt  a 
connection  could  be  traced  far  out  on  some  leafy  branch 
of  the  ancestral  tree.  But  it  is  said  that  neither  of  them 
knew  what  it  was.  Lund's  lieutenant  was  Bishop,  who 
only  once,  since  the  memorable  vigil  outside  Mr.  Cham- 
berlayne's  door,  had  strayed  from  his  chief.  Too  old 
for  the  active  service  of  the  days  of  Braddock,  "he  was 
left  at  home,"  wrote  one  who  knew  him  well,  "in  charge 
of  the  manufacturing  establishments  of  the  household, 
wherein  the  veteran  would  flourish  his  cane,  expecting 
as  perfect  obedience  as  though  he  had  been  commanding 
officer  on  parade.  A  comfortable  house  had  been  built 
for  him;  he  had  married;  and,  looking  no  more  toward 
his  native  land,  he  was  contented  to  pass  the  remainder 
of  his  days  on  the  domain  of  his  patron,  where  he  rested 
from  labor,  in  the  enjoyment  of  every  possible  ease  and 
indulgence." 

It  may  or  may  not  be  significant,  but  it  is  difficult 
to  discover  the  traces  of  cordial  intercourse  between  the 


134  MOUNT  VERNON 

Washingtons  and  the  Custises.  From  the  time  of 
Washington's  marriage  his  mother  never  came  to  Mount 
Vernon.  His  sister  and  brothers  seem  rarely  to  have 
appeared  there.  It  is  indeed  suspected  that  on  their 
wedding,  Washington  married  into  the  Widow  Custis' 
family,  rather  than  that  she  married  into  his.  When 
her  grandson  wrote  his  reminiscences  of  life  at  Mount 
Vernon  he  mentioned  but  one  of  the  General's  relatives, 
a  young  nephew  whose  first  name  appeared  casually 
in  a  quoted  letter.  In  the  next  generation,  however, 
some  of  the  children  of  the  General's  brothers  and  sister 
appeared  somewhat  more  at  home  at  their  uncle's  house 
than  their  parents  before  them. 

When  Washington  accepted  the  command  of  the 
army  he  expressed  no  doubt  that  he  would  return  safe  to 
Mount  Vernon  and  his  wife  in  the  fall.  Instead  of 
which  he  was  detained  in  Massachusetts.  Mrs.  Wash- 
ington, thereupon,  was  determined  to  go  north  and 
spend  the  winter  in  camp  with  him.  For  seven  years 
this  was  her  usual  custom.  When  the  stress  of  a  sum- 
mer campaign  eased  and  the  army  settled  in  winter 
quarters,  the  General  would  send  an  aide-de-camp  to 
Mount  Vernon  to  be  her  personal  escort  to  Cambridge, 
Morris  town,  Valley  Forge,  Middlebrook,  New  Winsor, 
or  wherever  the  army  happened  to  be.  Her  chariot 
was  occasionally  accompanied  by  a  military  escort,  by 
the  General's  order  if  the  road  lay  dangerously  near  the 
enemy's  line,  oftener  as  a  spontaneous  compliment  of 
the  citizens  of  the  districts  through  which  she  passed. 

Of  the  eight  years  and  eight  months  that  Washington 
was  absent  during  the  war  Mrs.  Washington  spent 
nearly  half  the  time  with  him.  At  such  times  Mount 


MOUNT  VERNON  135 

Vernon  was  deserted  indeed.  The  house  was  quiet, 
the  woods  no  longer  echoed  to  the  hounds  and  horn, 
and  the  well-travelled  roadways,  deserted  by  the  smart- 
hoofed  mounts  and  the  broad-tired  chariots  of  the  cus- 
tomary stream  of  visitors,  felt  the  green  creeping  up 
from  ditches  to  wheel-rut.  His  mother  resented  his 
military  activities  now  as  formerly  and  said  she  wished 
"George  would  come  home  and  attend  to  his  planta- 
tion." 

However,  even  in  the  absence  of  both  the  master  and 
mistress  the  doors  of  Mount  Vernon  were  not  entirely 
closed.  The  General  wrote  Lund  Washington  from 
Cambridge,  shortly  after  Mrs.  Washington  joined  him 
at  headquarters:  "Let  the  hospitality  of  the  house,  with 
respect  to  the  poor,  be  kept  up.  Let  no  one  go  away 
hungry.  If  any  of  this  kind  of  people  should  be  in 
want  of  corn,  supply  their  necessities,  provided  it  does 
not  encourage  them  in  idleness;  and  I  have  no  objection 
to  your  giving  my  money  in  charity,  to  the  amount  of 
forty  or  fifty  pounds  a  year,  when  you  think  it  well 
bestowed." 

The  progress  of  the  war  was  followed  with  passionate 
but  somewhat  starved  eagerness  at  Mount  Vernon. 
The  newspapers  were  few  and  without  modern  facilities 
for  quick,  precise,  or  ample  news.  There  was  no  postal 
system  to  speak  of.  At  intervals,  usually  of  a  week, 
express  pony  riders  carried  the  mails  north  and  south 
between  the  larger  towns.  England  did  nothing  for 
the  colonies  in  this  respect  and  they  did  practically 
nothing  for  themselves.  The  mails  were  in  the  hands  of 
private  carriers,  and  important  letters  or  consignments 
of  money  were  not  considered  safe  in  their  hands.  If 


136  MOUNT  VERNON 

the  matter  was  urgent  and  confidential  a  private  bearer 
was  despatched  with  the  letter.  Gentlemen  about  to 
undertake  a  journey  allowed  the  fact  to  become  known 
among  their  particular  friends  in  the  neighborhood  and 
often  started  away  with  numerous  packets  of  letters, 
large  sums  of  money,  and  with  negotiable  papers  of  con- 
siderable value.  Nevertheless  it  was  upon  the  unreli- 
able post-rider  and  the  occasional  accommodating 
traveller  that  Mount  Vernon  depended  for  communica- 
tion with  the  General.  Lund  was  faithful  to  the  'order 
that  Washington  ever  put  upon  his  managers  in  his 
absence,  to  write  regularly  and  in  full  once  a  w^eek  about 
the  condition  of  his  estate.  Many  of  his  letters  are 
preserved,  and  they  afford  an  acquaintance  with  the  life 
there  to  be  found  at  no  other  source. 

Washington  had  been  gone  but  a  few  months  when 
the  presence  of  war  in  the  land  became  evident  at  Mount 
Vernon.  One  of  Governor  Dunmore's  first  strokes 
was  to  threaten  a  declaration  of  freedom  for  all  inden- 
tured servants  in  the  colonies.  Lund  Washington  wrote 
that  such  an  order  would  wreck  their  working  forces. 
But  this  fear  dwindled  presently  before  the  larger  alarm 
which  spread  along  tidewater  Potomac,  as  news  came 
that  English  ships  were  on  their  way  up  the  river  to 
lay  waste  the  towns  and  country,  capture  Mrs.  Wash- 
ington, and  burn  Mount  Vernon. 

Lund  wrote  the  General  in  a  tone  obviously  designed 
to  allay  his  fears:  "She  does  not  believe  herself  in 
danger,  nor  do  I,"  he  said;  "without  they  attempt  to 
take  her  in  the  dead  of  night,  they  would  fail,  for  ten 
minutes  notice  would  be  sufficient  for  her  to  get  out  of 
the  way."  A  few  days  later  he  wrote:  " Mrs.  Washing- 


MOUNT  VERNON  137 

ton  was  under  no  apprehension  of  Lord  Dunmore  doing 
her  an  injury,  until  your  mention  of  it  in  several  of  your 
letters."  Nevertheless,  she  postponed  a  trip  down 
country  in  order  to  pack  the  General's  papers,  the  silver, 
and  other  valuables,  and  hold  herself  and  them  in  readi- 
ness for  instant  departure  inland. 

Dunmore's  expedition  came  up  as  far  as  the  mouth  of 
Occoquon  Creek,  into  which  flows  the  Bull  Run  of  two 
great  battles  nearly  a  century  later.  Here  he  en- 
countered the  Prince  William  Militia  and  a  severe 
storm,  a  combination  which  he  found  too  forbidding  for 
his  further  progress;  not,  however,  before  he  had  thrown 
the  countryside  into  a  panic.  A  few  days  later  George 
Mason  wrote  Washington:  "Dunmore  has  come  and 
gone,  and  left  us  untouched  except  by  some  alarms. 
I  sent  my  family  many  miles  back  into  the  country,  and 
advised  Mrs.  Washington  to  do  likewise  as  a  prudential 
movement.  At  first  she  said,  'No,  I  will  not  desert 
my  post,'  but  finally  she  did  so  with  reluctance,  rode 
only  a  few  miles,  and — plucky  little  woman  as  she  is, 
stayed  away  only  one  night." 

The  dwellers  along  tidewater  became  active  in  con- 
sidering measures  to  thwart  the  dreaded  Dunmore;  more 
active  in  considering  than  in  putting  them  into  effect. 
It  was  proposed  to  protect  Mount  Vernon  and  the  upper 
river  by  batteries  on  Lower  Cedar  Point  where  the 
channel  is  narrowest,  or  at  Maryland  Point,  or  farther  up 
even  on  the  commanding  bluffs  of  Indian  Head.  Hob- 
son's  Santiago  expedient  was  anticipated,  Lund  Wash- 
ington writing  his  chief,  October  29,  1775:  "As  I  re- 
membered hearing  Captain  Boucher  say  he  would 
undertake  with  three  ships  to  stop  the  channel  so  that 


138  MOUNT  VERNON 

no  ship  of  force  could  get  up  the  River,  I  proposed  that 
he  should  be  immediately  sent  to  and  consulted  upon 
it."  But  in  the  end  nothing  was  done. 

The  following  January  there  were  renewed  rumors  of 
the  approach  of  British  vessels  to  destroy  Mount 
Vernon,  and  the  neighborhood  was  in  another  panic. 
This  time  Lund  did  not  conceal  his  apprehensions,  per- 
haps because  Mrs.  Washington  was  with  the  General, 
and  he  did  not  have  to  dissemble  to  spare  his  chief's 
fears  for  his  wife. 

"Alexandria  is  much  alarmed,  and  indeed  the  whole 
neighborhood,"  he  wrote.  "The  women  and  children 
are  leaving  the  town  and  stowing  themselves  in  every 
hut  they  can  find,  out  of  the  reach  of  the  enemy's 
cannon.  Every  wagon,  cart,  and  pack-horse,  they  can 
get,  is  employed.  The  militia  are  all  up,  but  not  in 
arms,  for  indeed  they  have  none,  or  at  least  very  few. 
I  could  wish,  if  we  were  to  have  our  neighborhood  in- 
vaded, that  they  would  send  a  tender  or  two  among  us, 
that  we  might  see  how  the  people  would  behave  on  the 
occasion.  Thay  say  they  are  determined  to  fight.  I 
am  about  packing  up  your  China  and  glass  in  barrels, 
and  other  things  into  chests,  trunks,  and  bundles,  and 
I  shall  be  able  at  the  shortest  notice  to  remove  them  out 
of  the  way.  I  fear  the  destruction  will  be  great,  al- 
though the  best  care  has  been  taken.  Everybody  I  see 
tells  me,  that  if  the  people  could  have  notice  they  would 
immediately  come  and  defend  your  property,  so  long  as 
they  have  We,  from  Loudoun,  Prince  William,  Fau- 
quier,  and  this  county." 

But  this  time  the  ships  did  not  even  enter  the 
Potomac.  After  cruising  about  the  Chesapeake  they 


MOUNT  VERNON  139 

finally  felt  the  sting  of  the  colonists'  gunfire,  and  sped 
away,  and  Dunmore  did  not  appear  again  to  disturb  the 
planters  of  the  Potomac. 

For  the  rest  of  the  war  Mount  Vernon  was  unthreat- 
ened  until  its  very  last  year.  Early  in  1781  British 
Tarleton  with  his  band  of  red-coat  raiders  swung  up 
from  the  southwest  like  a  whirlwind.  Word  came  that 
Jefferson's  Monticello  was  their  first  objective  and 
Washington's  home  would  be  the  next.  Tarleton 
reached  Charlottesville,  but  his  easterly  course  was 
aimed  no  higher  than  Fredericksburg. 

When  the  fright  about  the  river  raid  was  first  on  at 
the  beginning  of  the  war,  Lund  wrote  bravely:  "I  think 
fifty  men  well  armd  might  prevent  two  hundred  from 
burning  Mount  Vernon,  situated  as  it  is;  no  way  to  get 
up  to  it  but  up  a  steep  hill,  and  if  I  remember  right 
General  Gates  told  me  it  could  not  be  done  by  the 
shipping.  I  wish  I  had  the  muskets  I  would  endeavor 
to  find  the  men,  black  or  white,  that  would  at  least  make 
them  pay  dear  for  the  attempt." 

Apparently  he  never  got  the  muskets,  for  shortly  after 
the  Tarleton  scare  British  ships  appeared  in  the  river 
and  actually  anchored  off  Mount  Vernon.  Lund  ob- 
viously was  not  without  spirit;  but  without  arms  and 
the  men,  discretion  seemed  to  him  the  better  part  of 
valor.  What  he  did,  and  his  chief's  reflection  on  it, 
appear  in  the  General's  celebrated  rebuke  to  the  man 
for  whom,  however,  he  never  lost  admiration  or  af- 
fection : 

"I  am  sorry  to  hear  of  your  loss.  I  am  a  little  sorry 
to  hear  of  my  own;  but  that  which  gives  me  most  con- 


140  MOUNT  VERNON 

cern  is,  that  you  should  go  on  board  the  enemy's  ves- 
sels, and  furnish  them  with  refreshments.  It  would 
have  been  a  less  painful  circumstance  to  me  to  have 
heard,  that  in  consequence  of  your  non-conipliance  with 
their  request,  they  had  burnt  my  House  and  laid  the 
Plantation  in  ruins.  You  ought  to  have  considered 
yourself  as  my  representative,  and  should  have  re- 
flected on  the  bad  example  of  communicating  with  the 
enemy,  and  making  a  voluntary  offer  of  refreshments  to 
them  with  a  view  to  prevent  a  conflagration.  It  was 
not  in  your  power,  I  acknowledge,  to  prevent  them  from 
sending  a  flag  on  shore,  and  you  did  right  to  meet  it;  but 
you  should,  in  the  same  instant  that  the  business  of  it 
was  unfolded,  have  declared  explicitly,  that  it  was  im- 
proper for  you  to  yeild  to  the  request;  after  which,  if 
they  had  proceeded  to  help  themselves  by  force,  you 
could  have  but  submitted;  and,  (being  unprovided  for 
defense,)  this  was  to  be  preferred  to  a  feeble  opposition, 
which  only  serves  as  a  pretext  to  burn  and  destroy." 

None  of  the  military  "alarums  and  excursions,"  how- 
ever, disturbed  the  work  on  the  place.  The  improve- 
ments on  the  house  went  forward.  Before  the  end  of 
1775  Lanphier  and  Sears  and  "the  stucco  man"  com- 
pleted "the  new  room,"  the  chimney  piece,  and  the 
dining-room  ceiling,  which  was  "a  handsomer  one  than 
any  of  Col.  Lewis's  [at  Kenmore  House,  Fredericksburg] 
although  not  half  the  work  on  it."  Lund  had  many 
other  operations  on  the  way  at  this  time,  among  them 
the  building  or  rebuilding  of  the  storehouse,  the  wash- 
house,  the  garden  walls,  and  their  little  octagon  houses  for 
school  and  seeds  and  tools.  He  was,  moreover,  eager  to 


THE  NORTH  COLONNADE 

Through  the  arches  may  be  seen  the  Circle  and  the  Howling  Green 
surrounded  by  the  Serpentine  Drive 


MOUNT  VERNON  141 

complete  the  other  addition  to  the  mansion,  but  the  fear 
of  new  raids  filled  him  with  apprehension. 

"  I  think  if  you  could  be  of  opinion  that  your  buildings 
would  not  be  destroyed  this  summer,"  he  wrote  his 
chief  in  February,  1776,  "it  would  be  best  to  have  the 
other  addition  to  the  end  of  your  house  raised  .  .  . 
but  this  cannot  be  done  without  a  master  workman,  un- 
less you  choose  to  once  more  try  Lanphier."  Washing- 
ton evidently  was  forced  to  put  up  with  this  incorri- 
gible, for  in  the  spring  of  1778  Lund  still  had  him  on  hand 
and  wrote:  "Of  all  the  worthless  men  living  Lanphier 
is  the  greatest,  no  act  or  temptation  of  mine  can  prevail 
on  him  to  came  to  work  notwithstanding  his  repeated 
promises  to  do  so.  I  wanted  so  much  to  get  the  windows 
finished  in  the  Pediment  that  I  might  have  the  garrett 
passage  plastered  and  cleared  out  before  Mrs.  Washing- 
ton's return.  Besides  this  the  scaffolding  in  the  front  of 
the  house  cannot  be  taken  away  before  it  is  finished. 
This  prevents  me  from  putting  up  the  steps  to  the  great 
front  door." 

At  this  time,  1778,  instead  of  after  the  war  as  gener- 
ally stated,  the  mansion  was  raised  to  the  extended  pro- 
portions in  which  it  has  ever  since  been  so  familiar,  and 
the  curved  and  colonnaded  covered  ways  now  rose  to 
connect  the  big  house  with  the  nearest  of  the  many  little 
houses.  To  this  time,  too,  may  doubtless  be  attributed 
the  lofty  portico  extending  the  length  of  the  river  side  of 
the  mansion,  for  so  shortly  after  his  return  after  the  war 
as  to  have  made  it  impracticable  for  him  to  have  built  it 
at  that  time,  Washington  ordered  new  stone  flagging  and 
dug  up  the  old  pavement  and  laid  the  new. 

The  traditions  which  cluster  about  the  old  house  in- 


142  MOUNT  VERNON 

elude  among  the  improvements  made  early  in  the  war, 
the  removal  of  the  partition  in  the  main  passage  or  hall, 
thus  making  one  extended  hall  from  front  to  front, 
and  the  installation  of  the  panelling  of  the  new  big  hall 
as  it  has  since  remained. 

Lund  included  in  his  letters  all  the  personal  news 
of  the  neighborhood  and  the  estate,  making  them  a 
gazette  of  life  at  home  on  the  big  river.  After  the 
receipt  of  one  of  these  letters  it  was  Washington's  sad 
duty  to  be  obliged  to  write  Colonel  Fairfax  in  England 
of  the  complete  destruction  of  his  house,  Belvoir,  by 
fire  early  in  1783.  "But  mine  (which  is  enlarged  since 
you  saw  it),"  he  hastened  to  add,  "is  most  sincerely  at 
your  service  till  you  can  rebuild  it."  Belvoir  was  never 
rebuilt.  Of  it  there  remains  neither  authentic  plan  nor 
painting.  Its  site  is  an  overgrown  thicket  where  the 
lines  of  the  foundation  are  scarcely  to  be  traced.  This 
beautiful  and  historic  spot,  which  bound  up  some  of  the 
most  agreeable  and  cherished  experiences  of  Washing- 
ton's life,  was  threatened  with  uses  a  few  years  ago 
which  would  have  been  at  once  a  blight  upon  it  and 
Mount  Vernon.  Friends  of  Washington's  home  and 
neighborhood,  however,  led  by  the  Mount  Vernon 
Ladies'  Association,  preserved  it  by  securing  the  transfer 
of  the  threatened  lands  to  the  United  States  Army, 
which  has  dedicated  it  to  the  training  of  soldiers  and 
officers. 

It  has  been  said  that  when  Washington  rode  away  hi 
the  spring  of  1775,  to  attend  the  Second  Continental 
Congress  at  Philadelphia,  he  did  not  return  to  Mount 
Vernon  again  for  six  years.  In  fact,  during  the  whole 
course  of  the  war,  and  for  two  years  after  Cornwallis  sur- 


MOUNT  VERNON  143 

rendered  to  him  at  Yorktown  in  1781,  he  was  in  Virginia 
only  once.  In  passing  south  to  Yorktown  and  hi  re- 
turning north  again  he  stopped  briefly  at  his  home. 
During  his  absence  of  eight  years  and  eight  months 
he  was  at  Mount  Vernon  only  ten  days. 

The  whole  plantation  was  thrown  into  a  commotion 
in  the  early  morning  of  Sunday,  the  9th  of  September, 
1781,  by  the  announcement  of  the  arrival  of  the  General, 
and  old  Bishop's  younger  rival,  Billy  Lee,  his  groom  of 
hunting  days  and  personal  attendant  throughout  the 
war.  They  had  pressed  on  ahead  of  the  army  which 
was  making  a  forced  march  south  to  join  LaFayette  at 
Williamsburg. 

Next  to  the  greeting  of  his  "dear  Patsey,"  his  return  was 
distinguished  for  him  by  his  first  sight  of  his  now  com- 
pleted mansion,  and  by  his  first  acquaintance  with  Mrs. 
Washington's  four  grandchildren,  the  three  daughters 
and  baby  boy  of  Jack  and  Nelly  Calvert  Custis,  all  born 
during  his  absence  in  the  field. 

On  Monday  General  Count  de  Rochambeau  came, 
followed  by  General  Count  de  Chastellux.  After  rest- 
ing another  full  day  Washington,  accompanied  by  his 
two  French  guests,  their  servants,  and  Jack  Custis,  set 
off  on  Wednesday  morning  for  the  south. 

On  this  trip  there  was  no  dallying  at  country  houses. 
The  errand  was  stern  and  significant,  and  Washington 
pressed  across  country  in  record  time.  He  reached  the 
capital  Friday  afternoon  and  was  welcomed  by  La- 
Fayette and  the  French  soldiers  with  military  honors 
which  became  his  exalted  command.  One  month  and 
five  days  later  the  fighting  ceased. 

This  happy  event  was  clouded  by  the  news  brought 


144  MOUNT  VERNON 

Washington  from  Eltham,  Colonel  Bassett's  place  in 
New  Kent,  where  Jack  Custis  lay  at  the  point  of  death. 
Couriers  had  already  speeded  to  Mount  Vernon  to  sum- 
mon the  dying  man's  wife  and  mother.  Doctor  Craik 
hurried  from  Yorktown  to  give  his  friend  what  assist- 
ance he  could.  The  General  and  his  wife  together 
watched  the  ebb  of  the  young  life  of  him  who  had  been 
as  son  to  both  of  them.  By  his  death  Mrs.  Washington 
was  now  childless,  but  the  General  filled  the  gap  in 
both  their  lives  and  gave  promise  of  continued  youthful- 
ness  at  Mount  Vernon  by  adopting  the  two  youngest 
children,  Eleanor  Parke  Custis  and  George  Washington 
Parke  Custis,  as  their  own. 

Six  days  later  Washington  was  at  Mount  Vernon, 
where  he  remained  a  week,  and  departed  to  the  north 
for  another  absence  of  two  years,  holding  the  army  in 
that  preparedness  which  would  insure  a  desirable  treaty 
of  peace;  then  disbanding  it  and  concluding  his  own  rela- 
tion to  the  military  service.  He  resigned  his  commission 
at  Annapolis  on  December  23,  1783;  took  affectionate 
leave  of  his  companions  in  arms;  and  once  more  a  pri- 
vate citizen,  with  Mrs.  Washington  by  his  side,  and 
accompanied  by  Colonels  David  Humphreys,  William 
Smith,  and  Benjamin  Walker,  he  rode  forward  over  the 
familiar  Maryland  roads  toward  his  beloved  Mount 
Vernon. 


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CHAPTER  XII 

Washington's  Delight  to  Be  at  Mount  Vernon  Again — Letters 
— Journeys  to  Fredericksburg,  Philadelphia,  and  the  Ohio 
Country — Putting  a  Finish  on  Grounds  and  Buildings — The 
Bowling  Green  and  the  Serpentine  Drive — Trees — The  Deer 
Park — Gardens — Walls — Barns — Fences — A  Toper's  Con- 
tract— The  General's  Warhorse,  Nelson — Mrs.  Washington's 
Grandchildren — His  Nephews  and  Nieces — First  Wedding 
in  the  Mansion — Dreaming  of  a  Deed  from  the  General — 
Shiftless  Harriott. 

THE  General  and  Mrs.  Washington  reached 
home  Christmas  Eve.  His  "people"  from 
the  various  farms  gathered  at  the  gate  and 
along  the  drive  to  give  them  welcome.  Among  them 
was  Bishop,  easily  forgiven  for  any  envy  he  felt  of 
young  Billy  Lee.  They  lighted  the  night  with  bonfires 
and  made  it  noisy  with  fiddling  and  dancing  in  the 
quarters.  At  the  great  door  of  the  mansion  the  home- 
comers  were  greeted  by  a  troop  of  relatives,  and  next 
day  the  neighbors  drove  in  from  all  directions  to  add 
their  welcome. 

The  unconscious  historian  of  this  occasion  was  a  little 
girl,  one  of  the  Lewis  children  of  Fredericksburg,  who 
wrote  a  friend:  "I  must  tell  you  what  a  charming  day 
I  spent  at  Mt.  Vernon  with  Mama  and  Sally.  The 
General1  and  Madame  came  home  on  Christmas  Eve, 
and  such  a  racket  as  the  servants  made!  They  were 
glad  of  their  coming.  Three  handsome  young  officers 
came  with  them.  All  Christmas  afternoon  people 

145 


146  MOUNT  VERNON 

came  to  pay  their  respects  and  duty.  Among  these 
were  stately  dames  and  gay  young  women.  The  General 
seemed  very  happy  and  Mrs.  Washington  was  up  before 
daybreak  making  everything  as  agreeable  as  possible 
for  everybody." 

Washington's  early  letters  after  reaching  Mount  Ver- 
non  breathe  the  relief  and  joy  he  felt  to  have  closed  his 
"transactions  with  the  public"  and  arrived  at  "the 
goal  of  domestic  enjoyment." 

It  was  perhaps  natural  that  he  should  write  with 
least  reserve  and  most  sentiment  to  his  dear  LaFayette: 

"At  length,  my  dear  Marquis,  I  am  become  a  private 
citizen  on  the  banks  of  the  Potomac;  and  under  the 
shadow  of  my  own  vine  and  fig-tree,  free  from  the  bustle 
of  a  camp,  and  the  busy  scenes  of  public  life,  I  am  solac- 
ing myself  with  those  tranquil  enjoyments,  of  which  the 
soldier,  who  is  ever  in  pursuit  of  fame,  the  statesman, 
whose  watchful  days  and  sleepless  nights  are  spent  in 
devising  schemes  to  promote  the  welfare  of  his  own, 
perhaps  the  ruin  of  other  countries,  as  if  this  globe  were 
insufficient  for  us  all,  and  the  courtier,  who  is  always 
watching  the  countenence  of  his  prince,  in  hopes  of 
catching  a  gracious  smile,  can  have  very  little  concep- 
tion. I  have  not  only  retired  from  all  public  employ- 
ments, but  I  am  retiring  within  myself,  and  shall  be  able 
to  view  the  solitary  walk,  and  tread  the  paths  of  private 
life,  with  heartfelt  satisfaction.  Envious  of  none,  I  am 
determined  to  be  pleased  with  all;  and  this,  my  dear 
friend,  being  the  order  of  my  march,  I  will  move 
gently  down  the  stream  of  life,  until  I  sleep  with  my 
fathers." 


MOUNT  VERNON  147 

In  a  somewhat  similar  sentimental  vein  he  wrote  the 
Marchioness  de  LaFayette,  in  reply  to  her  felicitations : 

"From  the  clangor  of  arms  and  the  bustle  of  a  camp, 
freed  from  the  cares  of  public  employment  and  the 
responsibility  of  office,  I  am  now  enjoying  domestic 
ease  under  the  shadow  of  my  own  vine  and  fig-tree;  and 
in  a  small  villa,  with  the  implements  of  husbandry  and 
lambkins  around  me,  I  expect  to  glide  gently  down  the 
stream  of  life,  till  I  am  entombed  in  the  dreary  mansion 
of  my  fathers." 

But  to  his  fellow-campaigner,  General  Knox,  he  ex- 
pressed his  situation  seven  weeks  after  his  return  in 
more  literal  terms: 

"I  am  just  beginning  to  experience  that  ease  and 
freedom  from  public  cares,  which,  however  desireable, 
takes  some  time  to  realize;  for,  strange  as  it  may  seem, 
it  is  nevertheless  true,  that  it  was  not  till  lately  I  could 
get  the  better  of  my  usual  custom  of  ruminating,  as  soon 
as  I  waked  in  the  morning,  on  the  business  of  the  ensuing 
day;  and  of  my  surprise  at  finding,  after  revolving  many 
things  in  my  mind,  that  I  was  no  longer  a  public  man, 
nor  had  anything  to  do  with  public  transactions. 

"  I  feel  now,  however,  as  I  conceive  a  wearied  traveller 
must  do,  who,  after  treading  many  a  painful  step  with  a 
heavy  burthen  on  his  shoulders,  is  eased  of  the  latter, 
having  reached  the  haven  to  which  all  the  former  were 
directed;  and  from  his  house-top  is  looking  back,  and 
tracing  with  an  eager  eye  the  meanders  by  which  he 
escaped  the  quicksands  and  mires  which  lay  in  his  way ; 
and  into  which  none  but  the  all-powerful  Guide  and 


148  MOUNT  VERNON 

Dispenser  of  human  events  could  have  prevented  his 
falling." 

Relief  was  the  keynote  of  all  he  expressed,  relief  and  a 
desire  to  remain  undisturbed  in  the  tranquillity  of  his 
home.  "  I  feel  myself  relieved  of  a  load  of  public  care," 
he  wrote  Governor  Clinton.  "I  hope  to  spend  the 
remainder  of  my  days  cultivating  the  affections  of  good 
men,  and  in  the  practice  of  the  domestic  virtues."  It 
was  now  his  devoutly  expressed  wish  "to  glide  silently 
and  unnoticed  through  the  remainder  of  life." 

The  ice  and  snow  of  a  particularly  rigid  winter  locked 
the  family  in  the  house  during  the  first  weeks  of  the 
General's  return.  During  this  time  he  laid  out  a  scheme 
of  work  for  his  military  secretaries,  for  improvements  on 
the  grounds  and  gardens  and  farms,  and  for  the  recovery 
of  his  extensive  private  interests  from  the  confusion 
into  which  they  had  run  during  his  long  absence. 

He  settled  down  eventually  to  the  routine  of  his  life 
before  the  war,  but  not  until  he  had  made  some  trips 
during  the  first  months  after  his  return  home.  In 
February  he  braved  roads  and  weather  to  pay  his  duty 
to  his  mother  in  Fredericksburg.  In  May  he  attended 
the  meeting  of  the  Society  of  the  Cincinnati  at  Philadel- 
phia. At  the  end  of  the  summer  he  made  his  hasty 
journey  to  view  his  lands  on  the  Kanawha  and  the 
Ohio.  He  was  accompanied  only  by  his  nephew  Bush- 
rod  Washington,  Doctor  Craik  and  his  son  William, 
and  three  servants.  They  travelled  on  horseback  and 
covered  the  entire  distance  of  six  hundred  and  eighty 
miles  in  thirty -four  days  between  September  Is.t  and 
October  4th. 


A  VISTA 

Through  the  lofty  portico  on  the  river  side  of  the  Mansion,  looking  down  the 
Potomac.     The  right  shore  is  Virginia,  the  left  shore  is  Maryland 


MOUNT  VERNON  149 

Save  for  three  absences  in  Richmond  he  was  not  many 
miles  from  Mount  Vernon  until  public  service  again 
made  him  an  exile  five  years  later.  It  is  a  notable  fact 
that  Washington  rarely  went  far  from  his  home  except 
when  called  by  duty  or  business.  His  interest  and 
purpose  attached  to  his  house  and  lands  and  he  left 
them  only  at  the  sacrifice  of  personal  preferences. 

It  is  not  easy  to  see  what  Lund  Washington  left  him 
to  do  by  way  of  making  those  improvements  to  his 
house  which  have  so  often  been  attributed  to  the  first 
years  after  the  war.  But  the  severe  winter  called  out 
his  ingenuity  to  make  his  house  warmer,  so  it  may  have 
been  at  this  time  that  he  lathed  and  plastered  the  lower 
side  of  the  floor  planks  between  the  joists  in  the  cellar. 
The  original  laths  and  plaster  have  long  since  disap- 
peared, but  the  unmistakable  evidences  of  them  remain. 
It  was  then  not  an  uncommon  method  of  keeping  the 
floors  free  from  draughts,  for  those  were  not  days  of 
tongue  and  groove  lumber.  He  now  prepared  a  dry 
well  for  ice  in  the  cellar  under  the  banquet  hall,  and 
possibly  the  cupola  may  be  attributed  to  the  work  done 
at  this  time. 

It  is  known  that,  in  the  spring  of  1786,  he  renewed  the  § 
paving  of  the  great  piazza,  on  the  river  front.  No  por- 
tion of  the  house  received  more  general  or  more  severe 
usage  than  this  out-of-door  shelter  with  its  magnificent 
views  of  the  Potomac.  Not  only  was  it  in  constant 
service  by  the  members  of  the  household,  but  the  great 
gatherings  of  visitors  were  received  and  entertained 
there,  for  which  thirty  windsor  chairs  were  provided, 
and,  when  winter  weather  prevented  the  General  from 
taking  his  usual  exercise  on  foot  or  horseback,  he  paced 


150  MOUNT  VERNON 

the  portico  for  an  hour  before  retiring  to  rest.  Its 
floor  is,  by  Washington's  own  record,  one  hundred  and 
twenty-four  feet  and  ten  and  a  half  inches  above  the 
river  level.  Evidently  the  first  pavement  placed  there 
by  Lund  Washington  did  not  stand  well,  for  says  the 
diary  (1786) :  "May  22,  Began  to  take  up  the  pavement 
of  the  piazza,"  and  "May  23,  Began  to  lay  the  flags  of 
my  piazza."  Washington  attributed  the  need  of  new 
flags  to  the  effect  of  frost  on  the  old,  but  the  new  ones 
have  remained  there  to  the  present  time. 

In  so  far  as  concerned  his  house  and  grounds  he  had 
passed  the  days  of  assembly,  and  now  entered  on  a 
period  of  decoration,  polish,  and  finish.  This  appeared 
especially  in  his  attention  to  his  west  lawn,  its  encircling 
drive,  and  the  trees  which  border  it;  the  two  walled  gar- 
dens, that  to  the  south  for  vegetables  and  that  to  the 
north  for  flowers  and  flowering  shrubs  in  greenhouse 
and  box-patterned  beds;  the  deer-park,  the  ha-ha  walls, 
and  the  miles  of  fences  on  the  various  farms.  As  in  all 
improvements  of  whatever  character  at  Mount  Vernon, 
Washington  made  his  own  plans  and  drawings. 

The  great  enclosed  lawn  on  the  west  side  of  the  man- 
sion includes  a  level  stretch  of  nearly  two  acres  about 
which  he  laid  out  a  carriage  drive,  called  his  Serpentine 
Road,  and  which  in  its  courses  passed  the  great  door  of 
the  mansion,  the  doors  of  four  of  the  small  or  "office" 
buildings,  and  the  entrance  to  each  garden,  and  de- 
scribed somewhat  the  outline  of  the  shield  of  the  United 
States.  The  trees  on  either  side  of  the  Serpentine,  as  it 
stretched  away  from  the  big  house,  terminated,  by 
Washington's  own  description,  "with  two  mounds  of 
earth,  one  on  each  side,  on  which  grow  weeping  willows, 


SAMUEL  VAUGHAN'S  PLAN  OF  MOUNT  VERNON 

Among  the  treasures  at  Mount  Vcrnon  where  it  is  accredited  the  original  sketch.  It 
is  here  reproduced  for  the  first  time.  The  following  references  are  in  part  from  the 
notes  attached  to  the  original:  1,  Mansion  House;  2K  Kitchen  and  Servants'  Hall; 
3.  Store  House;  4,  Smoke  House;  5,  Wash  House;  <>,  Coach  House;  7,  Old  Brick 
Stables;  8,  Barn  and  Carpenter  Shop;  9,  Lodgings  for  White  Servants;  10,  Tailor 
and  Shoemaker  Shop;  11,  Carpenter  Shop;  12,  Spinning  House;  13,  Blacksmith  Shop; 
14,  House  for  Families;  15,  Hot  House;  1C,  Kitchen  Gardens;  17,  Necessaries,  18, 
Spring  House;  19,  Lawn;  20,  For  Manure;  21,  School;  22,  Seed  House.  Number 
16  on  the  left  is  the  Flower  Garden 


MOUNT  VERNON  151 

leaving  an  open  and  full  view  of  the  distant  woods. 
The  mounds  are  sixty  yards  apart." 

In  1785  and  1786  his  diary  is  a  running  guide  to  his 
activities  in  the  adornment  of  his  grounds.  On  Janu- 
ary 19th  he  was  "  employ d  until  dinner  time  in  laying 
out  my  Serpentine  Road  &  Shrubberies  adjoining." 
In  February  he  "  Removed  two  pretty  large  &  full-grown 
lilacs  to  the  N°  Garden  gate — one  on  each  side  taking 
up  as  much  dirt  with  the  roots  as  cd  be  well  obtained"; 
he  "also  removed  from  the  woods  and  the  old  fields, 
several  young  trees  of  sassafras,  Dogwood  &  Redbud, 
to  the  Shrubbery  on  the  N°  side  the  grass  plot";  and  he 
"planted  all  the  Mulberry  trees,  Maple  trees  &  Black 
gums  in  my  Serpentine  walks — and  the  Poplars  on  the 
right  walk."  In  the  long  list  of  trees  that  he  planted 
and  grafted,  earlier  and  later,  at  Mount  Vernon,  are 
found:  the  Whitethorn,  Hemlock,  Mediterranean  Pine, 
Holly,  Tulip,  Sweet  Gum,  Oak,  Balsam,  Mulberry, 
Aspen,  Ash,  Locust,  Fringetree,  Willow,  Magnum 
Bonum  Plum,  French  Walnut,  Mississippi  Nut,  Crab 
Scions,  Butter  Pear,  Spanish  Pear  "from  Collo.  Mason," 
Black  Pear  of  Worcester,  Bergamy  Pear,  Early  June 
Pear,  Newton  Pippin,  Gloucester  White  Apple,  Cullock 
Heart  Cherry,  Early  May  Cherry,  Large  Duke  Cherry, 
Black  May  Cherry,  May  Duke  Cherry,  Carnation 
Cherry,  English  Mulberry,  Quince,  Peach,  and  others. 

He  hunted  the  woods  for  miles  to  bring  home  a  rare 
or  perfect  specimen  for  his  lawns.  He  brought  acorns 
and  buckeyes  back  from  the  Monongahela.  He  sought 
the  cooperation  of  friends  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic 
to  help  embellish  his  estate.  "Whenever  you  conceive 
the  season  is  proper,"  he  wrote  Governor  Clinton  of 


152  MOUNT  VERNON 

New  York,  "and  opportunity  offers,  I  shall  hope  to 
receive  the  balsam  trees,  or  any  others,  which  you  may 
think  curious  and  exotics  with  us,  as  I  am  endeavoring 
to  improve  the  grounds  about  my  house  in  this  way. 
If  perchance  the  sloop  Pilgrim  is  not  yet  sailed  from 
your  port,  you  would  add  to  the  favor  you  mean  to  con- 
fer on  me,  by  causing  a  number  of  grape  vines,  sent  to 
me  by  an  uncle  of  the  Chevalier  de  la  Luzerne,  brought 
over  by  Captain  Williams,  and  deposited  by  him  in 
the  garden  of  Mr.  Beekman  near  the  City  of  New  York, 
to  be  forwarded  by  that  vessel.  They  consist  of  a 
variety  of  the  most  valuable  eating  grapes  in  France. 
A  list  of  the  kinds,  and  the  distinctions  of  them,  no 
doubt  accompanied  them.  I  pray  you  to  take  some  of 
each  sort  for  your  own  use,  and  offer  some  to  Mr.  Beek- 
man." 

The  especial  pride  of  his  kitchen  garden  were  the 
fig-trees  which  were  trained  on  the  warm  side  of  the  north 
wall.  Amariah  Frost,  who  wrote  his  account  of  a  visit 
to  Mount  Vernon  in  Washington's  lifetime,  found  the 
gardens  "very  elegant,"  and  abounding  in  many  curiosi- 
ties, among  which  he  enumerated  "Fig-trees,  raisins, 
limes,  oranges,  etc.,  large  English  mulberries,  artichokes, 
etc. "  The  "raisin"  is  more  familiar  to-day  as  the  currant 
bush. 

The  unmanageable  undergrowth  on  the  faces  of  the 
bluff  between  the  mansion  and  the  river  gave  offense 
to  Washington's  sense  of  order  and  economy.  To  be 
rid  of  the  thicket,  without  the  trouble  of  keeping  it 
down  by  labor,  and  at  the  same  time  add  a  new  grace  to 
his  estate,  he  enclosed  about  one  hundred  acres  with  a 
wooden  paling  in  1785,  and  stocked  the  enclosure  with 


§ 

14 

w    £ 


B 


w    i 


MOUNT  VERNON  153 

deer  to  beat  it  down  to  a  park.  It  may  be  that  his  old 
friend,  Colonel  Fairfax,  suggested  this  characteristic 
feature  of  a  country  estate,  for  in  writing  to  him  to 
thank  him  for  offering  to  secure  him  "a  buck  and  doe 
of  the  best  English  deer,"  Washington  said:  "but  if 
you  have  not  already  been  at  this  trouble,  I  would,  my 
good  sir,  now  wish  to  relieve  you  from  it,  as  Mr.  Ogle 
of  Maryland  has  been  so  obliging  as  to  present  me  six 
fawns  from  his  park  of  English  deer  at  Bellair.  With 
these,  and  tolerable  care,  I  shall  soon  have  a  full  stock 
for  my  small  paddock." 

The  brick  walls  about  the  two  gardens,  built  during 
the  war,  were  not  merely  utilitarian;  they  were  part  of 
the  grand  plan  which  united  with  architectural  formal- 
ity and  proportion  the  big  house,  the  little  houses,  the 
gardens,  and  the  bowling  green.  But  as  the  place  took 
on  finish  it  became  exacting.  It  demanded  that  the 
barns  and  open  stable  court  be  screened  from  the  lawns 
on  the  east  side  of  the  mansion,  and  Washington  met 
the  demand  with  the  stepped  wall  which  descends  the 
hill  with  a  grace  that  makes  it  almost  imperceptible. 
Those  were  days  before  lawn-mowers  when  the  cattle 
did  the  useful  office  of  keeping  the  grass  down.  Un- 
sightly pasture  fences  were  no  longer  to  be  tolerated, 
so  he  built  the  English  ha-ha  walls  across  the  north 
and  south  river  lawns  and  beyond  the  west  end  of  the 
bowling  green.  These  walls,  in  effect  brick  terraces, 
were  invisible  from  the  house,  but  held  the  cattle  at  a 
distance  while  admitting  them  to  the  landscape. 

Mount  Vernon  was  in  reality  completed  in  all  its 
adornments  within  a  few  years  after  the  war.  This 
accomplished,  Washington  continually  repaired,  but 


154  MOUNT  VERNON 

he  did  not  materially  alter  the  house  or  the  fundamental 
plan  of  the  grounds  and  small  buildings.  Changes  in 
the  outlying  farms,  however,  were  constantly  under 
way.  There  was  always  a  force  of  woodmen  to  cut  and 
hew  timber,  and  of  carpenters  and  joiners  to  work  the 
lumber  up  into  farm  buildings.  Washington's  pride 
as  a  farmer  centred  at  this  time  on  his  new  barn.  It 
stood  in  the  centre  of  Union  Farm  about  halfway  be- 
tween the  mansion  and  the  mill,  and  measured  one 
hundred  feet  long  by  more  than  one  hundred  feet  deep. 
The  plan  was  furnished  by  the  celebrated  English 
farmer,  Arthur  Young,  but  Washington  modified  it  for 
his  own  emergencies. 

Even  at  so  early  a  period  of  the  settlement  of  the 
country  the  astute  Washington  realized  the  necessity 
of  economy  in  the  use  of  timber.  His  thousands  of 
acres  were  subdivided  by  miles  of  fences.  The  split- 
rail  fence  was  commonly  in  use.  He  had  begun  several 
years  before  to  replace  these  fences  with  hedges.  "At 
least  fifteen  years,"  he  said  in  1795,  "have  I  been  urging 
my  managers  to  substitute  live  fences  in  lieu  of  dead 
ones — which,  if  continued  upon  the  extensive  scale  my 
farms  require,  must  exhaust  all  my  timber; — and  to  this 
moment  I  have  not  one  that  is  complete: — nor  never 
shall,  unless  they  are  attended  to  in  the  manner  before 
mentioned;  and  if  plants  die,  to  replace  them  the  next 
season;  and  so  on,  until  the  hedge  is  close,  compact,  and 
sufficient  to  answer  the  purpose  for  which  it  is  designed." 

Whatever  other  interests  may  have  made  their  de- 
mands, wherever  else  he  may  have  been  called,  neither 
now  nor  later  did  Washington  cease  to  be  the  planter 
of,  if  not  at,  Mount  Vernon.  While  away  he  kept  in 


MOUNT  VERNON  155 

touch  with  his  manager  through  the  exchange  of  weekly 
reports  and  letters,  and  he  dictated  astonishingly  minute 
details  of  policy  and  procedure.  In  exercising  this 
genius  for  detail  he  did  not  always  escape  humorous 
results,  as  in  the  contract  with  a  gardener;  wherein,  in 
consideration  of  his  attending  faithfully  to  his  work  and 
keeping  himself  from  being  "disguised  with  liquor," 
Washington  agrees  to  allow  him,  among  other  emolu- 
ments, "four  dollars  at  Christmas,  with  which  he  may 
be  drunk  four  days  and  four  nights;  two  dollars  at 
Easter  to  effect  the  same  purpose;  two  dollars  at  Whit- 
suntide to  be  drunk  for  two  days;  a  dram  in  the  morning 
and  a  drink  of  grog  at  dinner  at  noon." 

So  when  he  came  back  after  the  war,  he  complained  a 
little  that  the  farms  were  shabby  and  that  farming  was 
impoverishing  him,  but  he  resumed  his  old  routine, 
nevertheless,  easily  and  naturally.  He  was  again  in  the 
saddle  daily,  riding  his  circuit  from  farm  to  farm,  to 
reappear  at  the  great  front  door  at  fifteen  minutes  be- 
fore the  dinner  hour  punctually  as  the  needle  on  the 
sundial,  with  which  he  now  invariably  compared  his 
watch. 

Somewhere  along  the  way,  however,  he  compromised 
with  time  to  allow  himself  a  few  extra  minutes,  for  it  is 
said  that  he  now  added  one  final  unfailing  stop  to  his 
daily  rounds.  It  was  at  the  pasture  where  a  tall,  ag- 
ing chestnut,  with  white  face  and  legs,  came  at  his  call 
to  receive  the  caresses  of  his  master's  hand.  This  was 
his  battle-horse,  Nelson,  his  companion  in  the  war,  and 
"remarkable  as  the  first  nicked  horse  seen  in  America." 
He  bore  Washington  on  his  back  when  Cornwallis  sur- 
rendered to  him  at  Yorktown.  Then  he  was  mustered 


156  MOUNT  VERNON 

out  of  service  and  a  saddle  was  never  put  on  his  back 
again. 

Nothing  else  in  life  seemed  to  delight  Washington  as 
Mount  Vernon  and  its  belongings,  its  development  and 
upkeep.  "Agriculture  has  ever  been  among  the  most 
favored  of  my  amusements,"  he  wrote  Arthur  Young, 
"though  I  have  never  possessed  much  skill  in  the  art, 
and  nine  years  total  inattention  to  it  has  added  nothing 
to  a  knowledge,  which  is  best  understood  from  practice; 
but  with  the  means  you  have  been  so  obliging  as  to 
furnish  me,  I  shall  return  to  it,  though  rather  late  in  the 
day,  with  more  alacrity  than  ever." 

When  Washington  resumed  life  at  Mount  Vernon  the 
household  was  curiously  similar  to  that  when  he  began 
his  married  life  there  twenty -four  years  before.  Then 
there  were  himself  and  Mrs.  Washington  and  her  two 
children,  John  and  Martha,  respectively  four  and  two 
years  old.  Now  there  were  still  himself  and  Mrs. 
Washington,  and  again  a  little  girl  and  a  little  boy,  but 
though  adopted  by  Washington,  they  were  her  grand- 
children this  time,  Eleanor  Parke  Custis  and  George 
Washington  Parke  Custis,  respectively  four  and  two 
years  old. 

Washington's  marriage  was  childless,  but  his  paternal 
affections  spent  themselves  without  reserve  first  on 
Mrs.  Washington's  children  and  then  on  her  grand- 
children. They  found  themselves  as  much  at  home  at 
Mount  Vernon  as  if  it  were  their  own  father's  house.  Of 
the  evidences  of  his  petting  of  the  children  none  perhaps 
is  more  charming  than  his  thought  of  tiny  Nellie  and 
Washington  when,  in  the  confusion  of  settling  the  public 
business  in  Philadelphia,  he  took  time  to  shop  for  toys 


MOUNT  VERNON  157 

for  them,  in  anticipation  of  that  Christmas  Eve  return 
from  the  war.  The  items  are  recorded  in  his  note-book 
with  his  customary  precision: 

By  Sundries  bo4,  in  PhiK 

A  Locket -5      5 

3  Small  Pock1.  Books 1     10 

3  Sashes 150 

Dress  Cap 28 

Halt 3     10 

Handkerchief 1 

Childrens  Books 46 

Whirligig 16 

Fiddle 26 

Quadrille  Boxes 1     17    6 

Washington  had  twenty-two  nephews  and  nieces  who 
survived  infancy.  His  wife  had  almost  as  many.  They 
were  a  humanly  uneven  group.  But  their  uncle  was 
generous  and  devoted  to  them  according  to  their  de- 
serts. He  found  commissions  for  several  nephews  in  the 
army.  It  is  said,  though  on  what  authority  it  does  not 
appear,  that  "he  did  not  hesitate  to  give  them  posts  of 
danger,  and  their  pay  came  out  of  his  pocket."  Some 
of  the  boys  he  sent  to  school  at  his  own  expense,  and  he 
was  glad  to  have  the  girls  come  to  Mount  Vernon  and 
meet  the  distinguished  visitors  with  an  eye  to  desirable 
husbands  for  them. 

When  Lund  Washington  left  Mount  Vernon  in  1785 
and  retired  to  his  own  estate,  Hayfield,  about  four  miles 
back  from  the  river,  he  was  succeeded  as  manager  by 
George  Augustine  Washington,  son  of  the  General's 
youngest  brother,  Charles.  While  a  member  of  his 
uncle's  family  and  hi  his  house  George  met  Frances 


158  MOUNT  VERNON 

Bassett,  Mrs.  Washington's  niece,  and  the  second  union 
of  the  Washington  and  Dandridge  families  followed  in 
their  marriage,  on  October  15,  1785.  This  appears  to 
have  been  the  first  wedding  ever  solemnized  at  Mount 
Vernon.  Before  retiring  that  night  the  General  noted 
in  his  diary  with  a  quaint  simplicity: 

"The  Reverend  Mr.  Grayson,  and  Doctr  Griffith; 
Lund  Washington,  his  wife,  &  Miss  Stuart  came  to 
Dinner — all  of  them  remained  the  Evening  except  L.  W. 
— After  the  Candles  were  lighted  George  Aug6  Washing- 
ton and  Frances  Bassett  were  married  by  Mr  Grayson." 

Bushrod,  son  of  John  Augustine  Washington,  became 
his  favorite  nephew,  even  as  his  father  was  the  General's 
favorite  brother;  and  to  him  his  uncle  bequeathed  Mount 
Vernon.  There  is  something  more  to  be  told  of  him  in 
its  place  in  this  story. 

There  is  a  tradition  of  another  nephew,  whose  name  is 
not  given,  who  discovered  his  distinguished  uncle's 
ownership  of  a  plantation  which  the  young  man  fancied. 
His  desire  for  the  place  was  so  much  on  his  mind  that  he 
one  night  dreamed  his  uncle  had  given  it  to  him.  The 
next  time  he  was  at  Mount  Vernon  he  called  the  Gen- 
eral's attention  to  the  piece  of  land  which  he  had  for- 
gotten that  he  owned.  The  young  man  told  of  the 
dream.  The  General  laughed  outright  and  remarked: 
"You  didn't  dream  Mount  Vernon  away  from  me,  did 
you,  sir?"  The  subject  was  then  forgotten.  The  next 
morning  as  the  young  relative  was  leaving  Washington 
placed  a  folded  paper  in  his  hand  to  be  examined  at  his 
leisure.  WTien  he  found  the  opportunity  he  discovered 


MOUNT  VERNON  159 

it  was  a  deed,  made  out  after  his  uncle  had  retired  for 
the  night,  conveying  to  him  the  property  they  had 
talked  about,  "for  the  consideration  of  natural  affec- 
tion." 

As  the  boys  and  girls  file  by,  none  seizes  the  atten- 
tion with  more  amusement  than  Harriott,  the  incorri- 
gible daughter  of  much-married  Samuel.  She  came  to 
her  uncle's  house  in  1785,  and  made  her  home  there  for 
seven  years.  Her  uncle  gives  her  portrait  in  a  few 
phrases,  indicating  at  the  same  time  what  a  trial  she 
must  have  been  to  one  of  his  fine  sense  of  order  and 
economy:  "Harriott  has  sense  enough  but  no  disposition 
to  industry,  nor  to  be  careful  of  her  cloathes. 
Direct  her  in  their  use  and  application  of  them,  for  with- 
out this  they  will  be  (I  am  told)  dabbed  about  in  every 
hole  and  corner,  and  her  best  things  always  in  use." 
Then  he  adds  with  kindly  justice:  "But  she  is  young 
and,  with  good  advice,  may  yet  make  a  fine  woman." 
Surely  there  is  apology  for  her  in  the  inevitable  neglect 
of  a  father  who  could  scarcely  have  found  time  with  his 
five  wives  to  care  properly  for  his  five  children. 

These  were,  however,  only  the  intimate  details  in  the 
domestic  background  after  the  war  before  which  a  new 
and  other  phase  of  Washington's  home  life  stood  boldly 
forth. 


CHAPTER  Xin 

Burdens  of  Greatness — Secretaries  in  the  Home — David  Hum- 
phreys and  William  Smith — Anecdote  of  Old  Bishop  and  His 
Daughter — Gideon  Snow — William  Shaw — Tobias  Lear — 
New  Associations  with  Alexandria — Visitors'  Descriptions 
of  Life  at  Mount  Vernon — Sitting  for  the  Portrait  Painters — 
Arrival  of  Houdon — He  Models  the  Bust — LaFayette's  Visit 
— Gifts  from  Abroad — French  Hounds — The  Vaughan  Man- 
tel— Mules  from  Malta — Asses  from  the  King  of  Spain. 

RELIEF  that  it  was  to  have  sheathed  his  sword 
and  retired  to  the  quiet  of  his  home,  Washing- 
ton was  no  longer  wholly  free  there  and  in  the 
enjoyment  of  the  privacy  he  desired.     He  now  belonged 
to   the   country,   for   although   there   was   no   actual 
national  entity,  the  pride  and  national  aspirations  of 
all  the  independent  states  in  the  confederation  f ocussed 
on  their  recent  military  leader.     Mount  Vernon  as  the 
residence  of  such  a  figure  typified  the  capital  of  the 
embryonic  nation. 

The  first  token  of  this  new  order  invaded  his  house- 
hold itself,  the  very  privacy  of  his  family.  Henceforth, 
while  Jie  was  there,  the  house  was  never  without  secre- 
taries and  clerks  whose  assistance  was  made  necessary 
by  the  increasing  volume  of  public  and  private  corre- 
spondence and  accounts.  With  added  work  he  had  less 
time,  for  a  second  evidence  of  the  new  order  was  the 
flow  of  visitors,  no  longer  the  casual  neighbors  riding 
in  for  dinner  and  a  fox  hunt,  but  dignitaries  whose 

160 


MOUNT  VERNON  161 

presence  made  demands,  and  amiable  and  often  im- 
portant strangers  who  came  with  the  homage  of  curi- 
osity. 

In  altering  his  house  Washington  made  storage  space 
for  his  letters  and  papers  in  recesses  built  on  each  side  of 
his  library.  Eventually  these  became  inadequate  and 
he  felt  the  necessity  of  building  a  separate  house  for  this 
purpose.  The  bases  of  the  archives  of  Mount  Vernon 
were  of  course  the  copies  of  all  his  personal,  business,  and 
agricultural  letters  which  he  kept  scrupulously  in  his 
own  hand,  his  journals,  and  his  account-books.  To 
these  were  added,  at  the  close  of  the  war,  the  transcripts 
made  by  Colonel  Richard  Varick  of  the  entire  mass  of 
his  correspondence,  public  and  private,  from  the  begin- 
ning to  the  end  of  the  Revolution.  They  filled  thirty- 
seven  volumes.  After  his  death  they  passed  by  pur- 
chase into  the  archives  of  the  national  government. 
This  mass  was  soon  increased,  in  addition  to  his  enor- 
mous personal  correspondence,  by  the  requests  which 
came  from  all  sources  for  his  assistance  and  counte- 
nance; for  he  was  asked  "to  write  endorsements  and 
recommendations,  stand  sponsor  to  books  on  every 
topic,  subscribe  money  to  all  manner  of  undertakings 
and  loan  it  to  the  needy." 

The  succeeding  years  brought  to  the  Mount  Vernon 
archives  his  vast  correspondence  on  bounty  lands  in  the 
West,  on  the  development  of  waterways,  on  the  organi- 
zation of  a  stable  national  government,  and  on  other 
public  matters  of  which  there  was  no  end. 

/The  first  secretaries  accompanied  him  home  from 
the  war.  They  were  Colonels  David  Humphreys  and 
William  Smith.  They  remained  long  enough  for 


162  MOUNT  VERNON 

Colonel  Smith  to  furnish  an  exploit  which  became  one 
of  the  traditional  stories  of  the  estate. 

Humphreys,  it  seems,  was  of  a  poetic  turn  and 
dreamed  away  his  leisure  hours  in  communion  with  the 
lovely  views  which  at  Mount  Vernon  stretch  in  all 
directions.  Smith  spent  his  recreation  in  more  sociable 
walks.  On  one  occasion  he  came  upon  the  house  of 
the  petted  old  autocrat,  Bishop,  Washington's  former 
body-servant,  whose  daughter  was  returning  from  the 
milking  with  a  brimming  pail.  Smith  made  some 
kindly  offer  of  assistance  which  the  frightened  girl  took 
for  the  flirtatious  license  of  a  kind  with  that  of  the 
wantonly  reputed  British  officers.  She  dropped  the 
pail  and  ran  into  the  house.  The  young  colonel  fol- 
lowed, muttering  apologies  and  explanations,  when  he 
came  face  to  face  with  her  father.  The  ancient  Bishop 
seems  to  have  been  a  spoiled  favorite  who  allowed  him- 
self all  kinds  of  temper  and  temperament.  He  at  once 
flew  into  a  state  of  outraged  wrath.  The  secretary's 
explanations  did  not  make  matters  any  better.  "I 
know  what  you  dashing  young  officers  are,"  Bishop  is 
said  to  have  replied,  folding  his  weeping  daughter  in  his 
arms,  feeling  he  was  the  hero  of  a  sound  dramatic  situa- 
tion and  intending  to  do  his  full  duty  by  it.  "I  am  an 
old  soldier  and  have  seen  some  things  in  my  day.  I  am 
sure  his  honor,  after  my  services,  will  not  permit  my 
child  to  be  insulted;  and,  as  to  the  Madam,  why  the 
Madam  as  good  as  brought  up  my  girl."  And  so  he 
brought  the  curtain  down  on  the  first  scene,  or  at  least 
says  the  chronicle,  "he  retired  into  his  house  and  closed 
the  door." 

Smith  suspected  Bishop  to  be  as  good  as  his  threat 


MOUNT  VERNON  163 

and  sought  out  Billy  Lee,  a  no  less  important  figure  at 
Mount  Vernon  than  Bishop  himself.  Billy  seemed  to 
sense  a  part  for  himself  in  this  little  drama,  and  first 
fed  the  colonel  on  the  ruthlessness  of  Bishop  and  then 
offered  himself  as  ambassador  to  plead  with  him. 

"Meantime,"  says  the  chronicler,  who  lived  at 
Mount  Vernon  at  the  time  and  heard  the  story  at  first 
hand,  "the  old  body-servant  ransacked  a  large  worm- 
eaten  trunk,  and  brought  forth  a  coat  that  had  not  seen 
the  light  for  many  long  years  (it  was  of  the  cut  and 
fashion  of  the  days  of  George  II),  then  a  vest,  and 
lastly  a  hat,  Cumberland  cocked,  with  a  huge  ribbon 
cockade,  that  had  seen  service  in  the  seven  years'  war. 
His  shoes  underwent  a  polish,  and  were  covered  by 
large  silver  buckles.  All  these  accoutrements  being 
carefully  dusted  and  brushed,  the  veteran  flourished  his 
staff  and  took  up  his  line  of  march  for  the  mansion  house. 

"Billy  met  the  old  soldier  in  full  march,  and  a  parley 
ensued.  Billy  harangued  with  great  force  upon  the 
impropriety  of  the  veteran's  conduct  in  not  receiving  the 
colonel's  apology;  'for,'  continued  the  ambassador, 
'  my  friend  Colonel  Smith  is  both  an  officer  and  a  gentle- 
man; and  then,  old  man,  you  have  no  business  to  have 
such  a  handsome  daughter  (a  grim  smile  passing  over 
the  veteran's  countenance  at  this  compliment  to  the 
beauty  of  his  child),  for  you  know  young  fellows  will  be 
young  fellows.'  .  .  . 

"The  old  body-servant,  fully  accoutred  for  his  expedi- 
tion, had  cooled  off  a  little  during  his  march.^  A  sol- 
dierly respect  for  an  officer  of  Colonel  Smith's  rank  and 
standing,  and  a  fear  that  he  might  carry  the  matter  a 
little  too  far,  determined  him  to  accept  the  colonel's  as- 


164  MOUNT  VERNON 

surance  that  there  could  be  no  harm  where  'no  harm 
was  intended,'  came  to  a  right-about  and  retraced  his 
steps  to  his  home. 

"The  ambassador  returned  to  the  anxious  colonel, 
and  informed  him  that  he  had  met  the  old  fellow,  en 
grand  costume,  and  in  full  march  for  the  mansion  house, 
but  that  by  a  powerful  display  of  eloquence  he  had 
brought  him  to  a  halt,  and  induced  him  to  listen  to 
reason,  and  drop  the  affair  altogether.  The  ready 
guinea  was  quickly  in  the  ambassador's  pouch,  while 
the  gallant  colonel,  happy  in  his  escape  from  what 
might  have  resulted  in  a  very  unpleasant  affair,  was 
careful  to  give  the  homestead  of  the  old  body-servant  a 
good  wide  berth  in  all  future  rambles." 

The  first  tutor  for  the  children  was  Gideon  Snow, 
who  probably  first  used  the  quaint  little  octagon  house 
in  the  garden  wall  as  a  schoolroom.  His  duties  were  so 
light  that  Washington  decided  to  combine  the  offices 
of  tutpr  and  secretary,  and  he  thus  described  the  obliga- 
tions and  privileges  attaching  to  the  position:  "To  write 
letters  agreably  to  what  shall  be  dictated.  Do  all  other 
writing  which  shall  be  entrusted  to  him.  Keep  Accts. 
— examine,  arrange,  and  properly  methodize  my  Pa- 
pers, which  are  in  great  disorder. — Ride,  at  my  expense, 
to  such  other  States,  if  I  should  find  it  more  convenient 
to  send  than  to  attend  myself,  to  the  execution  thereof. 
And,  ....  to  initiate  two  little  children  (a  girl  of 
six  and  a  boy  of  4  years  of  age,  descendants  of  the  de- 
ceased Mr.  Custis,  who  live  with  me  and  are  very  prom- 
ising) in  the  first  rudiments  of  education."  To  which 
he  shortly  added  that  the  secretary  "will  sit  at  my 
table,  will  live  as  I  live,  will  mix  with  the  company  who 


THB  SCHOOL  HOUSE 

In  the  wall  about  the  flower  garden.     The  walk  curves  between  beds  of 
peonies  and  iris  and  is  bordered  with  violets 


MOUNT  VERNON  165 

resort  to  my  house,  and  will  be  treated  in  every  respect 
with  civility  and  proper  attention.  He  will  have  his 
washing  done  in  the  family,  and  may  have  his  linen  and 
stockings  mended  by  the  maids  of  it." 

William  Shaw  came  to  fulfil  those  demands  in  July, 
1785.  He  remained  a  year  and  seems  to  have  had  an 
easy  time,  for  he  hunted  with  the  General,  and  went  to 
the  races,  assemblies,  and  dances  roundabout. 

His  successor  was  Tobias  Lear,  a  native  of  Ports- 
mouth, New  Hampshire,  and  a  Harvard  graduate  of 
1783,  who  remained  with  Washington  till  the  great  man 
died.  His  second  wife  was  Mrs.  Washington's  niece,  the 
widow  of  George  Augustine  Washington.  He  lived  at 
Wellington,  an  estate  on  the  Virginia  shore  of  the  Poto- 
mac, about  four  miles  north  of  Mount  Vernon  mansion, 
which  Washington  placed  at  his  disposal,  without  charge, 
for  his  lifetime.  After  his  chief's  death  Lear  went  into 
the  consular  service  and  died  in  Washington  City, 
October  16,  1816. 

During  the  Presidency  Washington's  secretaries  often 
accompanied  him  from  the  seat  of  government  to  Mount 
Vernon,  and  he  referred  to  them  as  "members  of  my 
family." 

Though  the  hero  was  now  merged  in  the  planter,  he 
found,  as  formerly,  genuine  satisfaction  in  the  com- 
panionship of  his  friends.  Nine  years  had  made  compar- 
atively few  changes  in  the  neighborhood.  The  Fairfaxes 
were  gone,  to  be  sure,  and  Belvoir  was  no  more,  but 
a  link  with  that  treasured  association  remained  in  the 
person  of  Bryan  Fairfax,  younger  half-brother  of  Colonel 
George  William  Fairfax.  Later  he  was  rector  of  Christ 
Church,  Alexandria.  His  home,  Mount  Eagle,  wr.s  and 


166  MOUNT  VERNON 

remains  to-day  on  the  heights  across  Great  Hunting 
Creek  from  Alexandria.  He  was  a  picturesque  figure, 
indeed,  if  he  came  to  Mount  Vernon  dressed  as  he  was 
when  he  went  to  England,  "in  a  full  suit  of  purple," 
which  abroad  was  supposed  to  be  "the  custom  of  the 
clergy  in  Virginia." 

The  family  now  went  to  Christ  Church  much  oftener 
than  to  Pohick.  The  latter  church  was  practically 
abandoned.  It  suffered  severely  in  the  reaction  against 
the  established  church,  and  all  other  things  English,  dur- 
ing the  Revolution,  and  only  at  infrequent  intervals 
were  the  doors  open  to  itinerant  preachers.  Christ 
Church  had  been  built  about  the  same  time  as  the 
second  Pohick  Church,  and  from  the  beginning  Wash- 
ington had  owned  a  pew  there.  The  family  and  their 
guests  drove  up  when  the  roads  and  the  weather  en- 
couraged a  round  trip  drive  of  eighteen  miles.  But  he 
never  gave  up  his  pew  at  Pohick,  and  went  there  occa- 
sionally when  it  was  open. 

Another  link  between  Mount  Vernon  and  Alexandria 
was  forged  as  early  as  1784,  when  the  General  and  Mrs. 
Washington  drove  up  to  attend  the  first  of  the  Birth 
Night  Balls.  These  were  the  predecessors  of  the  later 
holiday,  Washington's  Birthday,  and  succeeded  to  the 
colonial  custom  of  celebrating  the  sovereign's  birthday. 

His  exalted  position  now  attracted  a  constant  stream 
of  visitors.  Among  them  were  his  recent  French  and 
American  companions  in  arms,  and  even  English  offi- 
cers; leaders  of  political  thought  from  all  over  the 
country;  a  variety  of  strangers,  curious,  speculative, 
petitioning;  and  distinguished  foreigners  from  many 
European  countries.  It  is  to  some  of  these  foreigners, 


MOUNT  VERNON  167 

who  afterward  published  the  journals  of  their  travels, 
that  the  story  of  Mount  Vernon  owes  many  valuable 
sketches  of  the  life  there  at  this  time. 

Among  the  first  to  come  and  write  his  impressions 
was  John  Hunter,  merchant  of  London.  He  spent  a 
day  and  a  night  there  in  1785.  In  his  diary  is  found: 

"Wednesday  16th.  of  Nov'r.— When  Colonel  Fitz- 
gerald introduced  me  to  the  General  I  was  struck  with 
his  noble  and  venerable  appearance.  .  .  .  The 
General  is  about  six  feet  high,  perfectly  straight  and 
well  made;  rather  inclined  to  be  lusty.  His  eyes  are 
full  and  blue  and  seem  to  express  an  air  of  gravity.  His 
nose  inclines  to  the  aquiline;  his  mouth  small;  his  teeth 
are  yet  good  and  his  cheeks  indicate  perfect  health. 
His  forehead  is  a  noble  one  and  he  wears  his  hair  turned 
back,  without  curls  and  quite  in  the  officer's  style,  and 
tyed  in  a  long  queue  behind.  Altogether  he  makes  a 
most  noble,  respectable  appearance,  and  I  really  think 
him  the  first  man  in  the  world.  After  having  had  the 
management  and  care  of  the  whole  Continental  army, 
he  has  now  retired  without  receiving  any  pay  for  his 
trouble,  and  though  solicited  by  the  King  of  France 
and  some  of  the  first  characters  in  the  world  to  visit 
Europe,  he  has  denied  them  all  and  knows  how  to  pre- 
fer solid  happiness  in  his  retirement  to  all  the  luxuries 
and  flattering  speeches  of  European  Courts. 

"People  come  to  see  him  here  from  all  parts  of  the 
world — hardly  a  day  passes  without;  but  the  General 
seldom  makes  his  appearance  before  dinner;  employing 
the  morning  to  write  his  letters  and  superintend  his 
farm,  and  allotting  the  afternoon  to  company;  but  even 


168  MOUNT  VERNON 

then  he  generally  retires  for  two  hours  between  tea  and 
supper  to  his  study  to  write. 

"He  is  one  of  the  most  regular  men  in  the  world. 
When  no  particular  Company  is  at  his  house,  he  goes  to 
bed  always  at  nine  and  gets  up  with  the  sun.  It's 
astonishing  the  packets  of  letters  that  daily  come  for 
him,  from  all  parts  of  the  world,  which  employ  him  most 
of  the  morning  to  answer,  and  his  Secretary  Mr.  Shaw 
.  .  .  to  copy  and  arrange.  The  General  has  all  the 
accounts  of  the  war  yet  to  settle.  Shaw  tells  me  he 
keeps  as  regular  Books  as  any  Merchant  whatever,  and 
a  daily  Journal  of  all  his  transactions. 

"When  I  was  first  introduced  to  him  he  was  neatly 
dressed  hi  a  plain  blue  coat,  white  cassimer  waistcoat, 
and  black  breeches  and  Boots,  as  he  came  from  his  farm. 
After  having  sat  with  us  some  time  he  retired  and  sent 
in  his  lady,  a  most  agreeable  woman  about  50,  and 
Major  Washington  his  nephew,  married  about  three 
weeks  ago  to  a  Miss  Bessot.  .  .  .  After  chatting 
with  them  for  half  an  hour,  the  General  came  in  again, 
with  his  hair  neatly  powdered,  a  clean  shirt  on,  a  new 
plain  drab  coat,  white  waistcoat  and  white  silk  stock- 
ings. At  three,  dinner  was  on  table,  and  we  were  shewn 
by  the  General  into  another  room,  where  everything 
was  set  off  with  a  peculiar  taste,  and  at  the  same  time 
very  neat  and  plain.  The  General  sent  the  bottle  about 
pretty  freely  after  dinner,  and  gave  success  to  the  navi- 
gation of  the  Potomac  for  his  toasts,  which  he  has  very 
much  at  heart.  .  .  . 

"After  tea  General  Washington  retired  to  his  study 
and  left  us  with  the  President,  his  lady  and  the  rest  of 
the  Company.  If  he  had  not  been  anxious  to  hear  the 


MOUNT  VERNON  169 

news  of  Congress  from  Mr.  Lee,  most  probably  he  would 
not  have  returned  to  supper,  but  gone  to  bed  at  his  usual 
hour,  nine  o'clock,  for  he  seldom  makes  any  ceremony. 
We  had  a  very  elegant  supper  about  that  time.  The 
General  with  a  few  glasses  of  champagne  got  quite 
merry,  and  being  with  his  intimate  friends  laughed  and 
talked  a  good  deal.  Before  strangers  he  is  generally 
very  reserved,  and  seldom  says  a  word.  .  .  .  At  12 
I  had  the  honor  of  being  lighted  up  to  my  bedroom  by 
the  General  himself. 

"Thursday  17th.  November. — I  rose  early  and  took 
a  walk  about  the  General's  grounds — which  are  really 
beautifully  laid  out.  .  .  .  Indeed  his  greatest  pride 
now  is,  to  be  thought  the  first  farmer  in  America.  He  is 
quite  a  Cincinnatus,  and  often  works  with  his  men  him- 
self— strips  off  his  coat  and  labors  like  a  common  man. 
.  It's  astonishing  with  what  niceness  he  directs 
everything  in  the  building  way,  condescending  even  to 
measure  the  things  himself,  that  all  may  be  perfectly 
uniform.  The  style  of  his  house  is  very  elegant,  some- 
thing like  the  Prince  de  Conde's  at  Chantille,  near  Paris, 
only  not  quite  so  large.  .  .  .  The  situation  is  a 
heavenly  one,  upon  one  of  the  finest  rivers  in  the  world. 
I  suppose  I  saw  thousands  of  ducks  upon  it,  all  within 
gun  shot.  There  are  also  plenty  of  blackbirds  and  wild 
geese  and  turkies. 

"After  breakfast  I  went  with  Shaw  to  see  his  famous 
race-horse  Magnolia — a  most  beautiful  creature.  .  .  . 
He  also  showed  me  an  elegant  State  Carriage,  with 
beautiful  emblematical  figures  on  it,  made  him  a  pres- 
ent by  the  State  of  Pennsylvania.  I  afterwards  went 
into  his  stables,  where  among  an  amazing  number  of 


170  MOUNT  VERNON 

horses,  I  saw  old  Nelson,  now  22  years  of  age,  that 
carried  the  General  almost  always  during  the  war: 
Blueskin,  another  fine  old  horse  next  to  him,  now  and 
then  had  that  honor.  .  .  .  They  have  heard  the 
roaring  of  many  a  cannon  in  their  time.  Blueskin  was 
not  the  favorite,  on  account  of  his  not  standing  fire  so 
well  as  venerable  old  Nelson.  .  .  . 

"  When  the  General  takes  his  coach  out  he  always 
drives  six  horses;  to  his  chariot  he  only  puts  four.  .  .  . 
I  fancy  he  is  worth  100,000  Pounds  sterling  and  lives  at 
the  rate  of  3  or  4000  a  year;  .  .  .  There  is  a  fine 
family  picture  in  the  Drawing  room  of  the  Marquis  de 
LaFayette,  his  lady  and  three  children — another  of  the 
General  with  his  marching  orders,  when  he  was  Colonel 
Washington  in  the  British  Army  against  the  French  in 
the  last  war;  and  two  of  Mrs.  Washington's  children: 
her  son  was  reckoned  one  of  the  handsomest  men  liv- 
ing, also  a  picture  of  Mrs.  Washington  when  a  young 
woman." 

Watson,  formerly  a  merchant  of  Nantes,  came  one 
bitter  January  evening,  suffering  with  a  severe  cough, 
which  increased  during  the  night;  when  his  door  opened 
gently,  the  bed  curtains  were  parted  and  there  stood 
"Washington  himself  with  a  bowl  of  hot  tea  in  his 
hand."  J.  B.  Brissot  de  Warville  appeared  in  the 
course  of  his  travels  in  North  America  and  noted  the 
simplicity  in  the  house,  and  declared  that  Washington's 
"modesty  is  astonishing  to  a  Frenchman;  he  speaks  of 
the  American  war,  and  of  his  victories,  as  of  things  in 
which  he  had  no  direction." 

Robert  Edge  Pine,  "a  pretty  eminent  Portrait  &  His- 


MOUNT  VERNON  171 

torical-Painter,"  spent  three  March  weeks  at  Mount 
Vernon  in  1785  to  make  studies  of  Washington  for  his- 
torical canvases.  These  were  never  painted,  but  he  did 
portraits  of  the  General  and  the  Custis  children.  It 
was  while  Pine  was  at  Mount  Vernon  that  Washington 
wrote : 

"In  for  a  penny,  in  for  a  pound,  is  an  old  adage.  I 
am  so  hackneyed  to  the  touches  of  the  painter's  pencil, 
that  I  am  now  altogether  at  their  beck;  and  sit,  'like 
Patience  on  a  monument,'  while  they  are  delineating  the 
lines  of  my  face.  It  is  a  proof,  among  many  others,  of 
what  habit  and  custom  can  accomplish.  At  first  I  was 
as  impatient  at  the  request,  and  as  restive  under  the 
operation,  as  a  colt  is  of  the  saddle.  The  next  time  I 
submitted  very  reluctantly,  but  with  less  flouncing. 
Now,  no  dray-horse  moves  more  readily  to  his  thill  than 
I  to  the  painter's  chair." 

The  imagination  responds  readily  to  the  suggestion  of 
astonishment  and  confusion  produced  by  the  event 
noted  as  of  Sunday  the  2d  of  October  following: 

"Went  with  Fanny  Bassett,  Burwell  Bassett,  Doctr 
Stuart,  G.  A.  Washington,  Mr  Shaw  &  Nelly  Custis  to 
Pohick  Church;  to  hear  a  Mr  Thompson  preach,  who 
returned  home  with  us  to  Dinner,  where  I  found  the 
Rev.  Mr  Jones,  formerly  a  Chaplin  in  one  of  the  Pennsyl- 
vania Regiments. — After  we  were  in  Bed  (about  Eleven 
oclock  in  the  Evening)  Mr  Houdon,  sent  from  Paris 
by  Doctr  Franklin  and  Mr  Jefferson  to  take  My  Bust, 
in  behalf  of  the  State  of  Virginia,  with  three  young  men 
assistants,  introduced  by  a  Mr  Perin  a  French  Gentle- 


172  MOUNT  VERNON 

man  of  Alexandria  arrived  here  by  water  from  the  latter 
place." 

During  nearly  three  weeks  spent  at  Mount  Vernon, 
Houdon  made  a  life  mask  and  modelled  a  bust  which  has 
remained  in  the  mansion  ever  since.  With  this  life 
mask  and  measurements  of  the  person  of  the  General, 
and  memoranda  concerning  his  dress,  he  returned  to 
Paris.  There  Gouverneur  Morris  posed  for  the  figure 
and  Houdon  modelled  the  head  from  the  mask  and 
memory,  and  thus  completed  the  exquisite  statue  in 
marble  which  stand-in  the  rotunda  of  the  Capitol  at  Rich- 
mond. The  clay  bust  at  Mount  Vernon  remains  unique 
as  the  only  bust  of  Washington  made  from  life. 

So  the  procession  filed  on.  It  included  among  others 
Charles  Vallo,  who  contributed  to  the  descriptive  litera- 
ture of  the  place;  Chevalier  de  la  Luzerne,  who  found 
nothing  to  recall  "the  important  part  he  [Washington] 
has  played  except  the  great  number  of  foreigners  who 
come  to  see  him";  two  English  visitors  perpetuated  in 
the  significant  entry  in  the  diary,  "Mrs.  Macauley 
Graham  and  Mr.  Graham";  the  French  Minister,  the 
Comte  de  Moustier,  and  his  sister  the  "Marquise  de 
Brehan,"  and,  though  Washington  did  not  appreciate 
Madame's  penchant  for  fondling  negro  babies,  he  ad- 
mired a  miniature  profile  of  him  which  she  painted; 
Jno.  Fitch  with  "a  draft  &  model  of  a  machine  for 
promoting  navigation,  by  means  of  steam,"  and  Robert 
Fulton,  then  only  twenty  years  of  age;  Noah  Webster, 
on  a  copyright  errand,  not  yet  busy  with  his  dictionary ; 
Captain  Littlepage,  of  Virginia,  who  had  been  "Aid  de 
Camp  to  the  Duke  de  Crillen — was  at  the  Seiges  of  Fort 


MOUNT  VERNON  173 

St.  Phillip  (on  the  Island  of  Minorca)  and  Gibraltar;  and 
is  an  extraordinary  Character*';  Andre  Michaux,  sent 
by  the  French  Government  to  establish  in  America 
nurseries  of  plants  to  be  naturalized  in  France;  "a 
Gentleman  calling  himself  the  Count  de  Cheiza  D'art- 
eignan  officer  of  the  French  Guards"  presented  himself 
for  dinner  and  spent  the  night,  "bringing  no  letters  of 
introduction,  nor  any  authentic  testimonials  for  his  being 
either;  I  was  at  a  loss  how  to  receive  or  treat  him — "; 
Parson  Weems,  meditating  the  hatchet  story  for  his  life 
of  Washington,  which  was  to  be  more  widely  known  and 
read  than  any  other;  and  Jedediah  Morse,  author  of  the 
first  American  geography.  "My  house,"  wrote  Wash- 
ington at  about  this  time,  "may  be  compared  to  a  well 
resorted  tavern." 

With  uniform  hospitality  for  all  who  came  under  his 
roof,  there  was,  however,  no  one  else  who  received  a  wel- 
come equal  to  that  of  General  the  Marquis  de  LaFay- 
ette,  "the  French  boy,"  as  Mrs.  Washington  called  him, 
who  made  two  visits  to  Mount  Vernon  on  his  return  to 
America  in  1784.  He  came  first  in  August  for  twelve 
days  and  returned  in  November  for  a  week.  Washing- 
ton's attachment  for  LaFayette  was  one  of  the  unique 
affections  of  his  life.  On  the  occasion  of  his  second  visit 
Washington  travelled  all  the  way  to  Richmond  to  meet 
him  and  accompany  him  to  Mount  Vernon.  And  when 
the  precious  seven  days  had  passed  he  was  so  loath  to 
give  up  his  friend  that  he  journeyed  on  with  him  to 
Annapolis.  Washington  returned  home  and  dis- 
patched thence  these  lines  of  farewell  which  are  more 
nearly  sentimental  than  any  others  of  his  which  are 
preserved : 


174  MOUNT  VERNON 

"In  the  moment  of  our  separation,  upon  the  road  as  I 
travelled,  and  every  hour  since,  I  have  felt  all  that  love, 
respect  and  attachment  for  you,  with  which  length  of 
years,  close  connection,  and  your  merits  have  inspired 
me.  I  often  asked  myself,  as  our  carriages  separated, 
whether  that  was  the  last  sight  I  ever  should  have  of 
you?  And  though  I  wished  to  answer  No,  my  fears  an- 
swered Yes.  I  called  to  mind  the  days  of  my  youth, 
and  found  they  had  long  since  fled  to  return  no  more; 
that  I  was  now  decending  the  hill  I  had  been  fifty  two 
years  in  climbing,  and  that,  though  I  was  blessed  with  a 
good  constitution,  I  was  of  a  short  lived  family,  and 
might  soon  expect  to  be  entombed  in  the  mansion  of  my 
fathers.  These  thoughts  darkened  the  shades,  and  gave 
a  gloom  to  the  picture,  and  consequently,  to  my  pros- 
pect of  ever  seeing  you  again." 

His  premonition  was  correct.  They  did  not  see  each 
other  again.  LaFayette,  however,  came  to  Mount 
Vernon  forty  years  later  to  pay  homage  at  the  tomb  of 
his  chief  and  friend. 

Washington  was  also  reminded  of  the  enlarged  sphere 
of  his  fame  by  the  numerous  and  sometimes  extraordi- 
nary gifts  which  now  reached  Mount  Vernon.  Most 
interesting  of  these  were  the  Italian  mantel,  the  French 
hunting  hounds,  and  the  Maltese  and  Spanish  asses. 

The  mantel,  which  at  once  found  an  ideal  position  in 
the  banquet  room,  opposite  the  large  ornamental  win- 
dow, came  in  February,  1785,  from  Samuel  Vaughan, 
of  London.  He  was  a  stranger  to  Washington  but  had  a 
passionate  admiration  for  his  character  and  achieve- 
ments. The  mantel  is  of  "white  and  Sienite  marbles." 


MOUNT  VERNON  175 

Its  most  striking  feature,  aside  from  its  simplicity  and 
symmetry,  are  the  three  panels,  sculptured  in  high  relief, 
celebrating  agricultural  life.  It  has  never  been  removed 
from  its  original  position  and,  with  the  white  marble 
hearth,  the  grate,  clock,  vases,  candlesticks,  and  flank- 
ing pedestals,  it  forms  the  one  complete  original  group 
assembled  in  the  mansion  to-day  exactly  as  in  the  life- 
time of  its  owner. 

The  hounds  were  sent  by  LaFayette  on  his  return  to 
France  after  his  visit  to  Mount  Vernon.  They  were  in 
favor  until  one  day  the  family  sat  down  to  dinner  to  dis- 
cover that  Vulcan  had  stolen  the  ham  about  which  the 
meal  was  to  have  been  assembled.  They  were  a  na- 
tively fierce  pack  and  Mrs.  Washington  is  suspected  of 
having  used  the  stolen  ham  as  an  excuse  to  get  rid  of 
them.  At  any  rate  the  French  hounds  soon  followed  the 
ham.  Washington's  adopted  son  says  apropos  of  this 
that  the  General  gave  up  hunting  in  1785,  but  he  did 
in  fact  hunt  until  1788.  Then  for  eight  years  his  ab- 
sence at  the  seat  of  government  kept  him  away  from 
Mount  Vernon  during  the  hunting  season.  When  he 
returned  in  1797  he  was  somewhat  advanced  in  years 
for  the  vigorous  sport  he  had  followed  until  his  fifty- 
sixth  year. 

There  were  few  and  only  inferior  mules  in  America 
at  this  time  and  Washington  desired  to  improve  the 
breed.  This  became  known  abroad,  and  in  1788  he  re- 
ceived from  LaFayette  a  jack  called  Knight  of  Malta 
and  two  Maltese  she  asses;  also  a  jack  called  Royal 
Gift  and  two  jennies  from  the  King  of  Spain.  "From 
these  altogether,"  he  said,  "I  hope  to  secure  a  race  of 
extraordinary  goodness,  which  will  stock  the  country." 


176  MOUNT  VERNON 

The  presents  did  not  all  move  in  one  direction  by  any 
means.  In  1785  Washington  was  making  an  effort  to 
get  seeds  in  "Kentucke"  for  the  French  King's  Gar- 
dens at  Versailles,  and  three  years  later  he  was  hunting  a 
healthy  family  of  opossums  to  send  an  English  friend, 
Sir  Edward  Newenham. 

Such  were  some  of  the  conspicuous  details  at  Mount 
Vernon  of  the  early  days  of  Washington's  military  fame. 
If  it  robbed  the  home  of  some  of  its  privacy,  there  were 
compensations.  It  has  been  said  Mount  Vernon  typi- 
fied the  capital  of  the  embryonic  nation.  There  now 
centred  the  ideas,  the  discussions,  and  the  initiative 
which  finally  prevailed  in  giving  birth  to  the  nation. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

Mount  Vernon  the  Cradle  of  Constitutional  Agitation — Union 
of  States  First  Effected  at  Mount  Vernon  Conference — Off 
to  the  Constitutional  Convention — Washington's  Passion  for 
the  Constitution — Virginia  in  a  Turmoil — Ratification — 
Dreading  the  Interruption  of  His  Home  Life — Elected  First 
President  of  the  United  States — The  Formal  Notification  at 
Mount  Vernon — Breaking  Home  Ties — End  of  His  Furlough 
— Departure  for  the  Inauguration. 

IT  HAS  been  said  that  Washington  left  Mount  Ver- 
non a  distinguished  Virginian  and  returned  after 
the  war  one  of  the  most  famous  men  in  the  world. 
More  significant  is  Henry  Cabot  Lodge's  other  remark 
that  Washington  passed  at  a  single  step  from  being  a 
Virginian  to  being  an  American. 

In  the  midst  of  his  domestic,  social,  and  agricultural 
activities  by  the  Potomac  his  mind  dwelt  continually 
on  the  conditions  which  his  military  success  had  im- 
posed on  the  disunited  states.  His  vision  revealed  to 
him  the  ruin  ahead  under  the  Articles  of  Confederation 
and  the  opportunity  and  salvation  which  lay  only  in  a 
nation  united  with  a  firm,  centralized  government. 

He  realized  the  truth  of  the  British  taunt  that  if  the 
now  independent  states  were  left  to  themselves  they 
would  soon  dissolve.  And  so,  while  he  wrote  LaFayette 
and  Knox  and  others  of  his  complete  retirement,  his  in- 
tention to  confine  his  activities  to  the  cultivation  of  the 
friendship  of  good  men  and  to  the  practise  of  the  do- 
mestic virtues,  the  enigma  of  his  country's  future  was 

177 


178  MOUNT  VERNON 

never  wholly  out  of  his  mind.  To  his  perception  he 
added  a  patriotism  which  embraced  all  the  states,  and 
at  Mount  Vernon  was  conceived  and  developed,  urged, 
and  in  a  measure  consummated,  the  idea  of  union  and 
of  the  means  to  national  strength  and  life. 

In  the  library  were  written  the  constant  stream  of 
letters  which  carried  the  constitutional  idea  into  every 
other  state.  During  hours  and  days  of  consultation 
and  discussion  with  thoughtful  leaders,  in  walks  be- 
neath the  trees,  seated  about  his  hospitable  board,  or 
during  long  sessions  under  the  canopy  of  his  riverside 
piazza,  he  argued  and  persuaded  for  the  firm  union  of 
the  states. 

The  common  enemy  had  drawn  the  colonies  together 
during  the  war,  but  once  peace  was  declared  the  units 
flew  asunder.  Jealousy  displaced  fraternal  confidence. 
The  states  discredited  each  other's  currency.  They 
set  up  import  taxes  against  each  other.  Under  these 
menacing  conditions  the  representatives  of  Maryland 
and  Virginia  met  at  Mount  Vernon  in  March,  1785,  to 
devise  some  means  of  securing  uniform  action  between 
the  two  states  on  the  problem  of  the  commerce  and 
fishing  of  the  Chesapeake  and  the  Potomac.  It  was 
then  and  there  decided  that  the  two  states  should  adopt 
uniform  laws  on  imports,  currency,  and  commercial 
regulations;  that  a  naval  force  should  be  maintained  at 
the  expense  of  both  states  and  for  the  protection  of 
both;  that  the  commissioners  should  propose  to  their 
respective  state  governments  the  establishment  of 
conjoint  laws  under  the  assent  of  Congress.  Here  ap- 
peared the  first  evidence  of  union.  It  was  the  union  of 
only  two  states,  Virginia  and  Maryland,  but  it  was 


MOUNT  VERNON  179 

union,  and  it  submitted  itself  to  the  Congress  of  all  the 
states.  Mount  Vernon  was  the  scene  of  this  first  step 
toward  national  union. 

The  following  January,  1786,  Virginia  joined  Mary- 
land in  a  proposal  that  every  state  should  send  dele- 
gates to  a  convention  at  Annapolis  in  September,  to 
regulate  the  commerce  of  all  the  states.  From  the 
Annapolis  convention  emanated  the  call  for  the  conven- 
tion to  be  held  in  Philadelphia,  in  the  spring  of  1787,  to 
frame  a  constitution  for  the  union  of  all  the  states. 

Washington  was  unanimously  elected  to  head  Vir- 
ginia's delegation.  He  pleaded  his  retirement,  rheu- 
matism, and  other  reasons  for  declining  to  serve.  But 
when  there  was  question  of  his  republicanism  he 
brushed  all  considerations  aside,  began  an  exhaustive 
study  of  constitutional  governments,  of  which  he  left 
lengthy  autograph  evidence  in  his  library,  and  on  Wed- 
nesday, May  9,  1787,  "crossed  from  Mount  Vernon  to 
Mr.  Digges  a  little  after  sunrise,"  and  was  one  of  the 
first  delegates  to  reach  Philadelphia.  He  was  made  the 
president  of  the  Constitutional  Convention,  remained 
in  the  city  throughout  the  fatiguing  summer,  and 
reached  home  September  22d,  after  an  absence  of  four 
months  and  fourteen  days. 

He  at  once  dispatched  riders  from  Mount  Vernon 
with  copies  of  the  Constitution  to  Thomas  Nelson, 
Benjamin  Harrison,  and  Patrick  Henry,  former  gover- 
nors of  Virginia,  and  to  other  prominent  men,  stating 
his  wish  that  it  had  been  more  perfect  and  his  belief 
that  it  was  the  best  that  could  be  obtained  at  the  time, 
and  urging  their  support.  A  storm  of  discussion  broke 
over  the  state.  Among  those  arrayed  against  the  Con- 


180  MOUNT  VERNON 

stitution  were  Patrick  Henry,  Benjamin  Harrison, 
George  Mason,  Richard  Henry  Lee,,  and  James  Monroe. 
Among  those  in  its  defense  were  James  Madison,  John 
Marshall,  Edmund  Pendleton,  and  General  Henry  Lee 
("Light  Horse  Harry"). 

Washington  remained  at  home  and  somewhat  in  the 
background  of  the  "passionate  agitation."  But  he 
stood  committed  to  the  Constitution  as  drawn,  with  a 
door  open  for  subsequent  amendments,  and  gave  it  the 
full  force  of  his  support.  A  visitor  to  Mount  Vernon 
shortly  after  his  return  from  Philadelphia  wrote  Thomas 
Jefferson  in  November: 

"I  stayed  two  days  with  General  Washington  at 
Mount  Vernon  about  six  weeks  ago.  ...  I  never 
saw  him  so  keen  for  anything  in  my  life  as  he  is  for  the 
adoption  of  the  new  scheme  of  government.  As  the 
eyes  of  all  America  are  turned  towards  this  truly  great 
and  good  man  for  the  first  President,  I  took  the  liberty 
of  sounding  him  upon  it.  He  appears  to  be  earnestly 
against  going  into  public  life  again;  pleads  in  excuse  for 
himself  his  love  of  retirement  and  his  advanced  age,  but 
notwithstanding  of  these,  I  am  fully  of  opinion  that  he 
may  be  induced  to  appear  once  more  on  the  public 
stage  of  life." 

He  subscribed  for  a  number  of  copies  of  the  Federalist, 
in  which  Madison,  Jay,  and  Hamilton  defended  the 
Constitution.  One  set  he  had  bound  and  placed  in  his 
library.  The  others  he  sent  broadcast  on  their  propa- 
ganda. Another  and  more  unique  addition  to  Mount 
Vernon  at  this  time  was  the  good  ship  Federalist,  a  pres- 
ent to  Washington  from  the  merchants  and  shipowners 


MOUNT  VERNON  181 

of  Baltimore.  That  city  celebrated  the  adoption  of  the 
Constitution  by  Maryland  with  a  procession  in  which  a 
conspicuous  feature  was  a  full-rigged  ship,  named  the 
Federalist,  fifteen  feet  long,  mounted  on  wheels  and 
drawn  by  four  horses.  After  the  celebration  it  was 
launched  in  the  Chesapeake  and  navigated  down  the 
bay  by  Captain  Barney  and  up  the  Potomac  to  Mount 
Vernon  wharf.  It  remained  there  an  amusing  curiosity 
for  nearly  two  months,  when  it  was  torn  from  its  moor- 
ings by  a  high  wind  and  was  sunk. 

The  bitter  fight  for  the  Constitution  in  Virginia  was 
waged  for  nearly  a  year.  During  that  time  Washing- 
ton was  more  active  than  ever  with  his  correspondence. 
He  saw  an  increasing  number  of  people  and  spent  him- 
self in  persuasion.  It  was  his  conviction  that  the  alter- 
native to  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution  was  the  total 
dissolution  of  the  uniting  states.  Without  his  influence 
Virginia  would  not  have  ratified,  and  it  is  probable  that 
without  Virginia  the  great  experiment  would  not  have 
succeeded.  Hence  it  was  with  relief  and  exultation 
that  news  came  telling  of  Virginia's  ratification  on  June 
25th.  Three  days  later  the  citizens  of  Alexandria  pre- 
pared a  public  dinner  as  part  of  the  celebration  of  the 
event,  which  the  General,  Colonel  Humphreys,  and 
George  Augustine  Washington  attended  from  Mount 
Vernon.  Returning  home,  he  noted  with  neighborly 
pride,  in  a  letter  to  Charles  Cotesworth  Pinckney: 
"Thus  the  citizens  of  Alexandria,  when  convened,  con- 
stituted the  first  public  company  in  America,  which  had 
the  pleasure  of  pouring  [a]  libation  to  the  prosperity  of 
the  ten  States  that  had  actually  adopted  the  general 
government." 


182  MOUNT  VERNON 

When  Congress  received  the  testimonials  of  ratifica- 
tion it  appointed  a  day  for  the  choice  of  electors  of  a 
President,  who,  being  chosen,  unanimously  elected 
George  Washington  first  President  of  the  United  States. 
So  little  was  this  unexpected  that  from  the  time  of  the 
General's  return  home  from  the  Constitutional  Con- 
vention requests  poured  in  upon  him  to  accept  the  office. 
It  was  the  fixed  idea  that  Washington  should  be  the 
first  executive  of  the  new  nation  not  only  in  every  mind 
in  America  at  all  times,  but  Europe  likewise  accepted 
his  choice  as  inevitable.  In  answer  to  LaFayette's 
letter  on  this  subject,  the  General  wrote  him : 

"Knowing  me  as  you  do,  I  need  only  say,  that  it 
has  no  enticing  charms  and  no  f acinating  allurements  for 
me.  However,  it  might  not  be  decent  for  me  to  say  I 
would  refuse  to  accept,  or  even  to  speak  much  about  an 
appointment,  which  may  never  take  place;  for,  in  so 
doing,  one  might  possibly  incur  the  application  of  the 
moral  resulting  from  that  fable,  in  which  the  fox  is 
represented  as  inveighing  against  the  sourness  of  the 
grapes,  because  he  could  not  reach  them.  All  that  it 
will  be  necessary  to  add,  my  dear  Marquis,  in  order 
to  show  my  decided  predelictions  is,  that,  (at  my  time 
of  life  and  under  my  circumstances,)  the  increasing 
infirmaties  of  nature  and  the  growing  love  of  retirement 
do  not  permit  me  to  entertain  a  wish  beyond  that  of 
living  and  dying  an  honest  man  on  my  own  farm." 

Later,  as  the  time  drew  near  for  the  counting  of  the 
electoral  votes,  there  was  some  delay,  and  Washington 
wrote  Henry  Knox: 


MOUNT  VERNON  183 

"For  myself  the  delay  may  be  compared  to  a  reprieve; 
for  in  confidence  I  tell  you,  (with  the  world  it  would 
obtain  little  credit,)  that  my  movements  to  the  chair  of 
government  will  be  accompanied  by  feelings  not  unlike 
those  of  a  culprit,  who  is  going  to  the  place  of  his  execu- 
tion; so  unwilling  am  I,  in  the  evening  of  a  life  nearly 
consumed  in  public  cares,  to  quit  a  peaceful  abode  for 
an  ocean  of  difficulties,  without  that  competency  of 
political  skill,  abilities,  and  inclination,  which  are  nec- 
essary to  manage  the  helm." 

Mrs.  Washington  shared  their  regret  to  tear  away 
again  from  the  peace  and  retirement  of  their  riverside 
home.  "I  little  thought  when  the  war  was  finished 
that  any  circumstances  could  possibly  happen  which 
would  call  the  general  into  public  life  again,"  she  wrote 
a  friend.  "I  had  anticipated  that  from  that  moment 
we  should  be  suffered  to  grow  old  together,  in  solitude 
and  tranquility.  .  .  .  When  I  was  much  younger 
I  should  probably  have  enjoyed  the  innocent  gayeties  of 
life  as  much  as  most  persons  of  my  age;  but  I  had  long 
since  placed  all  the  prospects  of  my  future  worldly 
happiness  in  the  still  enjoyments  of  the  fireside  at  Mount 
Vernon." 

A  notable  scene  was  acted  at  Mount  Vernon  on  the 
14th  of  April,  this  year  of  1789.  Shortly  after  noon 
there  arrived  from  New  York  the  Secretary  of  Congress, 
Mr.  Charles  Thompson,  who  had  been  appointed  to 
notify  Washington  of  his  election  to  the  office  of  Presi- 
dent. He  was  an  old  friend  of  the  General's  and  had 
been  Secretary  of  Congress  for  nearly  fifteen  years. 
He  delivered  the  certificate  of  election  and  added  a  few 


184  MOUNT  VERNON 

words  of  personal  address.     Washington's  reply  is  pre- 
served.    He  said: 

"I  am  so  much  affected  by  this  fresh  proof  of  my 
country's  esteem  and  confidence  that  silence  can  best 
express  my  gratitude.  While  I  realize  the  arduous 
nature  of  the  task  which  is  imposed  upon  me  and  feel 
my  own  inability  to  perform  it,  I  wish  that  there  may 
not  be  reason  for  regretting  the  choice;  for  indeed  all  I 
can  promise  is  to  accomplish  that  which  can  be  done 
by  an  honest  zeal.  Upon  considering  how  long  time 
some  of  the  Gentlemen  of  both  Houses  of  Congress  have 
been  at  New  York,  how  anxiously  desirous  they  must 
be  to  proceed  to  business,  and  how  deeply  the  public 
mind  appears  to  be  impressed  with  the  necessity  of  doing 
it  speedily,  I  cannot  find  myself  at  liberty  to  delay  my 
journey.  I  shall  therefore  be  in  readiness  to  set  out  the 
day  after  tomorrow;  and  shall  be  happy  in  the  pleasure 
of  your  company;  for  you  will  permit  me  to  say  that  it 
is  a  peculiar  gratification  to  have  received  this  communi- 
cation from  you." 

In  anticipation  of  an  early  departure  he  had  paid  a 
visit  of  farewell  to  his  mother  at  Fredericksburg,  when 
he  then  saw  her  for  the  last  time,  and  in  Alexandria 
borrowed  five  hundred  pounds  to  discharge  his  personal 
debts  and  another  one  hundred  pounds  to  defray  his 
expenses  to  the  seat  of  government  at  New  York  City. 
He  set  out  on  his  journey  Thursday  morning,  April 
16th.  "About  ten  o'clock,"  he  wrote  in  his  diary, 
"I  bade  adieu  to  Mount  Vernon,  to  private  life,  and  to 
domestic  felicity,  and  with  a  mind  oppressed  with  more 


MOUNT  VERNON  185 

anxious  and  painful  sensations  than  I  have  words  to 
express,  set  out  for  New  York  in  company  with  Mr 
Thomson  and  Col°  Humphreys,  with  the  best  disposi- 
tion to  render  service  to  my  country  in  obedience  to  its 
calls,  but  with  less  hope  of  answering  its  expectations." 
When  he  reached  the  West  Lodge  gates  he  found  a 
mounted  escort  of  neighbors  and  friends  from  Alexan- 
dria, who  accompanied  him  up  to  town.  They  said 
their  mutual  farewells  at  a  dinner  in  his  honor,  when, 
suggestive  of  the  number  of  units  of  the  union,  the 
toasts  were  thirteen.  "Farewell,"  said  the  mayor  on 
behalf  of  his  fellow-townsmen:  "Go  and  make  a 
grateful  people  happy — a  people  who  will  be  doubly 
grateful  when  they  contemplate  the  recent  sacrifice  for 
their  interests."  Washington's  emotions  could  with 
difficulty  be  concealed.  "Unutterable  sensations," 
said  he,  in  closing  his  reply,  "must  then  be  left  to  more 
expressive  silence,  while  from  an  aching  heart  I  bid  you 
all,  my  affectionate  friends  and  kind  neighbors,  fare- 
well." 


CHAPTER  XV 

Mount  Vernon  During  the  Presidency — Visits  Home — Arrival  of 
the  Key  of  the  Bastille— Mode  of  Travel— The  Hard  Riding 
Aide  and  the  General's  Anger — Directions  for  Hospitality  at 
Mount  Vernon  in  His  Absence — Managers  of  the  Estate: 
George  Augustine  Washington,  Anthony  Whiting,  Howell 
Lewis,  William  Pearce,  and  James  Anderson — Keeping  in 
Touch  with  His  Estate  When  Absent — New  Barns — Mrs. 
Washington  Homesick  hi  Philadelphia — The  General's  Love 
for  His  Home — Retires  from  Public  Life — Returns  to  Mount 
Vernon. 

THE  six  years'  respite  from  official  life  at  Mount 
Vernon  after  the  war  Washington  called  his 
"furlough."  During  the  next  eight  years  his 
home  saw  him  only  by  glimpses.*  He  found  opportuni- 
ties during  his  two  terms  as  President  to  journey  fifteen 
times  to  Mount  Vernon,  an  average  of  about  twice  a 
year.  These  visits  were  always  made  between  the  first 
of  April  and  the  first  of  November.  Once  only  he  re- 
mained later  by  three  weeks.  Winter  was  the  period 
of  the  sittings  of  Congress,  and  the  season  when  the 
roads  were  less  passable  and  when  the  city  offered  the 
greater  comfort,  which  accounts  for  his  presence  at  the 
seat  of  government  during  the  colder  months. 

His  stays  on  the  Potomac  were  generally  brief. 
Five  times  he  remained  only  from  seven  to  twelve  days. 
Once  he  remained  a  part  of  four  months.  The  other 
visits  covered  four  to  eight  weeks.  To  be  exact,  of  the 

*See  Appendix  B. 

186 


MOUNT  VERNON  187 

eight  years  of  the  Presidency  he  allowed  himself  in  all 
less  than  fifteen  months  at  his  home. 

His  first  absence  was  his  longest.  He  did  not  come 
back  to  Mount  Vernon  until  a  year  and  a  half  after  his 
inauguration,  September,  1790.  On  this  trip  he  proba- 
bly brought  with  him  the  main  key  of  the  Bastille  and 
the  drawing  of  the  fortress  which  LaFayette  sent  him 
"as  a  missionary  of  Liberty  to  its  patriarch."  The  key 
hung  in  a  glass  cabinet  on  the  south  wall  of  the  main  hall 
and  it  has  not  left  Mount  Vernon  since.  The  Bust  of 
Necker,  French  Revolutionary  Minister  of  Finance,  also 
came  at  this  time,  and  for  many  years  after  occupied  a 
position  hi  the  library.  Mrs.  Washington  and  her 
grandchildren,  Nellie  and  George  Washington  Parke 
Custis,  did  not  accompany  the  General  to  the  inaugura- 
tion, but  they  soon  followed,  and  spent  the  period  of  his 
Presidency  in  New  York  with  him.  In  the  fall  of  1790 
Philadelphia  succeeded  New  York  as  the  seat  of  gov- 
ernment, and  thither  Washington  returned  at  the  end 
of  November. 

He  was  at  home  three  periods  in  1791:  the  first  for 
three  days  early  in  April,  "visiting  my  Plantations  every 
day,"  on  his  way  to  make  the  grand  tour  of  the  South; 
the  second  to  rest  for  a  fortnight  on  his  way  north  in 
June,  and  the  third  for  three  weeks  in  September  and 
October. 

The  next  year  he  came  twice:  for  nine  days  in  May, 
and  in  July  for  the  longest  vacation  he  spent  at  his  home 
while  President,  when  he  was  so  far  disposed  not  to 
accept  a  second  term  that  he  wrote  Madison  asking  his 
suggestions  about  a  farewell  address.  A  unique  souve- 
nir of  this  summer  on  the  Potomac  survives  to-day 


188  MOUNT  VERNON 

scratched  in  one  of  the  panes  of  glass  in  the  sleeping- 
room  known  as  the  Green  Room.  The  frail  but  pre- 
cious window  pane  is  heavily  reinforced  with  putty, 
for  it  bears  the  autograph  of  Eliza  P.  Custis,  and  the 
date  of  its  etching,  August  2,  1792. 

After  the  ceremonies  of  his  second  inauguration,  in 
1793,  the  President  rode  away  as  soon  as  he  could  for  a 
spring  visit  to  Mount  Vernon,  but  the  outbreak  of  the 
war  between  France  and  England  drew  him  back  to 
Philadelphia  after  a  rest  of  less  than  three  weeks.  The 
death  of  the  manager  of  his  estate  made  it  necessary  for 
him  to  return  southward  early  in  the  summer.  He  re- 
mained nine  days  and  was  the  guest  of  honor  of  his 
friends  and  neighbors  at  Alexandria  at  a  Fourth  of  July 
celebration,  when  "mighty  twelve  pounders"  thundered 
salutes  and  a  company  of  one  hundred  and  ten  "sat 
down  to  an  elegant  dinner  in  Mr.  Wise's  long  room." 
His  real  vacation  came  in  September  and  October,  love- 
liest time  of  the  year  in  Fairfax.  It  was  an  unexpected 
and  unwilling  flight  from  Philadelphia,  but  the  yellow 
fever  had  broken  out  in  the  city,  and  every  one  who 
could  deserted  it.  Although  Washington  expressed  a 
wish  to  remain  in  the  north  longer  than  the  10th  of 
September,  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  that  could  have  been 
possible  in  view  of  an  important  engagement  for  the 
18th  of  that  month  in  Washington  City.  On  that  day 
he  came  up  from  Mount  Vernon  to  "The  Federal  City," 
as  he  was  accustomed  to  call  it,  and  assisted  at  the 
laying  of  the  cornerstone  of  the  Capitol  of  the  United 
States. 

Having  accepted  a  second  term  in  the  chair  of  govern- 
ment, Washington  at  this  time  began  to  think  of  re- 


FACSIMILE  OF  THE  ORIGINAL  AUTOGRAPH 

Draft  of  a  letter  dated  December  12, 1793,  from  George  Washington  to  Arthur  Young. 
The  last  paragraph  above  contains  the  beginning  of  Washington's  description  of 
Alount  Vernon,  quoted  page  vii.  From  the  original  draft  in  the  Library  of  Congress 


MOUNT  VERNON  189 

ducing  his  responsibilities  as  a  planter  by  renting  all  his 
land  except  the  farm  on  which  the  mansion  house  stood. 
It  was  the  passing  whim  of  a  tired  man.  His  farms 
were  the  great  plaything  of  his  life.  Nothing  came  of  it 
except  an  advertisement  in  a  local  paper  and  an  elabo- 
rate letter  to  his  English  friend,  Arthur  Young,  in  which 
is  preserved  a  detailed  account  of  the  physical  features  of 
his  lands  and  their  improvements  and  stock. 

Twelve  days  in  June  and  July  were  the  sum  of  the  next 
year's  time  spent  at  Mount  Vernon.  In  1795  he  came 
for  seven  days  in  April,  in  July  for  seventeen,  and  on 
September  thirteen  for  a  full  month  lacking  only  a  day. 
It  was  on  the  last  visit  that  he  found  two  old  friends  of 
the  Mount  Vernon  household  married  and  at  home  in 
Alexandria.  They  were  his  secretary,  Tobias  Lear,  and 
Frances  Bassett  Washington,  widow  of  George  Augus- 
tine Washington.  Her  husband  and  Lear's  wife  both 
died  in  1793.  The  young  widow  and  the  widower  were 
married  in  August,  1795,  and  in  September  the  President 
and  Mrs.  Washington  drove  up  to  Alexandria  and  dined 
with  them.  This  was  the  first  time  in  over  thirty  years 
that  the  master  and  mistress  of  Mount  Vernon  had 
driven  through  its  gates  and  missed  the  welcome  of 
ancient  Bishop.  He  died  in  his  cottage  on  the  mansion 
house  farm,  in  his  eightieth  year,  in  January,  1795, 
mourned  by  the  master  he  had  served  as  long  as 
strength  permitted  and  by  whose  bounty  he  enjoyed  a 
green  old  age  of  ease  and  plenty. 

Every  morning  saw  the  President  on  horseback,  riding 
over  his  farms.  The  house  was  never  free  of  company 
and  usually  the  guests  packed  it.  He  often  entertained 
the  foreign  ministers,  the  members  of  his  cabinet,  and 


190  MOUNT  VERNON 

other  high  governmental  officials,  ranking  veterans  of 
the  army,  and  natives  and  foreigners  of  various  dis- 
tinctions. Time  for  work  on  his  letters  and  papers  was 
made  possible  only  by  his  custom  of  rising  hours  before 
others  of  the  household  and  closeting  himself  in  the 
library. 

During  the  final  year  of  the  Presidency  Washington 
was  at  home  for  nearly  two  months,  from  June  20th  to 
August  17th,  and  returned  in  September  to  take  Mrs. 
Washington  and  the  children  back  to  Philadelphia  for 
the  whiter.  On  the  latter  occasion  he  remained  thirty- 
three  days.  Much  of  his  time  while  at  home  this  sum- 
mer was  spent  in  his  library  over  his  Farewell  Address. 
He  had  by  him  Alexander  Hamilton's  extensive  sug- 
gestions, and  to  him  he  wrote  after  some  work  on  it: 
"All  the  columns,  of  a  large  gazette  would  scarcely,  I  be- 
lieve, contain  the  present  draught." 

He  left  Mount  Vernon  for  Philadelphia  for  the  last 
period  of  his  term  in  office  at  the  end  of  October,  1796. 
He  arrived  at  the  seat  of  government  on  the  last  day 
of  the  month.  In  general  the  trip  between  Mount 
Vernon  and  Philadelphia,  with  fan*  roads  and  no  delays, 
occupied  four  or  five  days.  When  his  horses  were  fat  or 
"out  of  exercise"  he  allowed  for  an  extra  day  of  rest  on 
the  route  somewhere.  If  the  trip  were  made  without 
Mrs.  Washington  or  her  grandchildren  he  generally 
pushed  forward  with  secretary  and  servants  and  five 
horses,  or  at  most  with  the  light  coachee  and  outriders. 
But  with  his  family  he  travelled  with  chariot  and  four  or 
six  horses,  coachman  and  postilions,  secretaries  on 
horseback,  a  light  baggage  wagon,  perhaps  a  two-horse 
phaeton,  and  from  six  to  twelve  servants.  There  were 


MOUNT  VERNON  191 

often  as  many  as  sixteen  horses  in  the  train.  The  heavy 
luggage  was  usually  sent  from  Philadelphia  to  Mount 
Vernon  by  vessel.  Washington  rode  in  the  coach  only  a 
fraction  of  the  time,  often  mounting  a  horse  and  resting 
himself  with  a  ride  by  the  side  of  Mrs.  Washington's 
chariot. 

One  of  the  rare  scenes  reported  of  these  journeys  con- 
firms the  belief  that  behind  Washington's  placid  mask 
he  had  a  very  human  nature  capable  of  being  stirred  to 
high  anger  and,  moreover,  it  glimpses  his  concern  for  his 
horses. 

"I  never  saw  him  angry  but  once  in  my  life,"  said  a 
relative  of  the  General's  whom  a  writer  in  the  Demo- 
cratic Review  for  March,  1843,  merely  styles  "Captain 
L";  "and  this  was  considered  so  remarkable  .  .  . 
we  looked  upon  it  as  quite  an  anomaly  in  the  General's 
life.  It  happened  while  he  was  President  and  travelling 
in  his  carriage,  with  a  small  retinue  of  outriders,  from 
Mount  Vernon  to  Philadelphia.  It  was  during  the  first 
day  of  our  journey,  and  we  were  passing  through  the 
barrens  of  Maryland,  where,  at  intervals  of  a  few  miles, 
the  solitude  of  the  road  was  relieved  at  that  time  by  a  set 
of  low  taverns  or  groggeries,  at  which  we  did  not  think 
of  stopping.  But  we  had  a  thoughtless  young  man  in 
our  train,  who  by  favour  had  been  admitted  into  the 
family  as  a  sort  of  gentleman  attendant,  and  who 
seemed  much  more  inclined  to  patronize  these  places. 
The  General,  at  his  request,  had  permitted  him  to  ride  a 
favorite  young  mare  which  he  had  raised  on  his  planta- 
tion, and  of  which  he  was  exceedingly  careful,  the  ani- 
mal being  almost  as  slight  as  a  roebuck  and  very  high 
spirited.  But  the  young  fellow,  notwithstanding  the 


192  MOUNT  VERNON 

intimations  he  had  received  at  starting  to  deal  gently 
with  her,  appeared  bent  on  testing  her  speed  and  other 
qualities,  and  that  too  in  a  manner  little  likely  to  meet 
with  favour  in  a  man  of  Washington's  high  sense  of 
propriety.  He  would  leave  the  train,  and  riding  up  to 
one  of  the  liquoring  establishments,  there  remain  until 
we  were  out  of  sight;  when  he  would  come  up  upon  the 
run,  ride  with  us  awhile,  and  gallop  on  forward  to  the 
next.  This  he  repeated  three  times,  the  last  of  which 
brought  the  mettlesome  creature  to  a  foam  and  evi- 
dently much  fretted  her.  At  the  first  transgression 
thus  committed  against  the  General's  orders  respecting 
the  mare,  as  well  as  against  his  known  sense  of  pro- 
priety, he  seemed  surprised,  looking  as  if  he  wondered  at 
the  young  man's  temerity,  and  contented  himself  with 
throwing  after  the  young  man  a  glance  of  displeasure. 
At  the  second  he  appeared  highly  incensed  although  he 
said  nothing,  and  repressed  his  indignation,  acting  as  if 
he  thought  this  must  be  the  last  offense,  for  the  punish- 
ment of  which  he  chose  a  private  occasion.  But  as  the 
offender  rode  up  the  third  time,  Washington  hastily 
threw  open  the  carriage  window,  and  asking  the  driver 
to  halt,  sharply  ordered  the  former  alongside;  when  with 
uplifted  cane,  and  a  tone  and  emphasis  which  startled 
us  all,  and  made  the  culprit  shrink  and  tremble  like  a 
leaf,  he  exclaimed,  'Look  you,  sir!  Your  conduct  is  in- 
sufferable! Fall  in  behind  there,  sir;  and  as  sure  as  you 
leave  us  again,  I  will  break  every  bone  in  your  skin ! ' ' 
In  the  absence  of  the  family  Mount  Vernon  was  fre- 
quented by  travellers  eager  to  see  the  home  of  the  re- 
nowned Washington,  and  he  maintained  a  generous  hos- 
pitality for  all  who  presented  themselves.  It  was  taken 


o 

to 


O  02 

5!       P 


§    3 


3 

I 


MOUNT  VERNON  193 

advantage  of,  however,  not  merely  by  the  guests  but  by 
the  servants,  and  the  President  felt  obliged  to  write  his 
manager  defining  the  treatment  he  wished  the  visitors  to 
receive : 

"Speaking  of  Gentlemens  Servts  it  calls  to  my  mind, 
that  in  a  letter  from  Mrs.  Fanny  Washington  to  Mrs. 
Washington  (her  Aunt)  she  mentions,  that  since  I  left 
Mount  Vernon  she  has  given  out  four  dozn  and  eight 
bottles  of  wine. — Whether  they  are  used,  or  not,  she  does 
not  say; — but  I  am  led  by  it  to  observe,  that  it  is  not  my 
intention  that  it  should  be  given  to  every  one  who  may 
incline  to  to  make  a  convenience  of  the  house,  in  travel- 
ing; or  who  may  be  induced  to  visit  it  from  motives  of 
curiosity. — There  are  but  three  descriptions  of  people  to 
whom  I  think  it  ought  to  be  given : — first,  my  particular 
and  intimate  acquaintances,  in  case  business  should  call 
them  there,  such  for  instance  as  Doctr  Craik. — 2dly 
some  of  the  most  respectable  foreigners  who  may,  per- 
chance, be  in  Alexandria  or  the  federal  city;  and  be 
either  brought  down,  or  introduced  by  letter,  from  some 
of  my  particular  acquaintances  as  before  mentioned; — 
or,  thirdly,  to  persons  of  some  distinction  (such  as  mem- 
bers of  Congress  &cl)  who  may  be  traveling  through  the 
Country  from  North  to  South,  or  from  South  to  North; 
— to  the  first  of  which,  I  should  not  fail  to  give  letters, 
where  I  conceive  them  entitled. — Unless  some  caution 
of  this  sort  governs,  I  should  be  run  to  an  expence  as  im- 
proper, as  it  would  be  considerable.  ...  I  have  no 
objection  to  any  sober,  or  orderly  person's  gratifying 
their  curiosity  in  viewing  the  buildings,  Gardens  &cl 
about  Mount  Vernon; — but  it  is  only  to  such  persons  as 


194  MOUNT  VERNON 

I  have  described,  that  I  ought  to  be  run  to  any  expence 
on  account  of  these  visits  of  curiosity,  beyond  common 
civility  and  hospitality." 

The  above  directions  were  sent  his  manager,  William 
Pearce. 

During  the  first  sixteen  years  of  his  married  life, 
which  he  spent  at  home,  Washington  managed  the 
estate  himself  with  overseers  on  each  of  the  farms.  At 
the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution  he  engaged  a  distant  rela- 
tive, Lund  Washington,  as  manager,  and  left  the  charge 
of  Mount  Vernon  in  his  hands  for  ten  years.  At  the  end 
of  this  term  the  General  had  then  been  at  home  two 
years  and  recovered  his  grasp  on  the  place.  His 
nephew,  George  Augustine  Washington,  was  at  Mount 
Vernon  at  this  time,  and  to  the  affections  of  his  uncle  he 
added  his  confidence  to  such  a  degree  that  when  called 
to  the  Presidency  Washington  placed  the  estate  under 
the  management  of  this  nephew.  The  young  man 
seems  not  to  have  been  without  ability,  but  his  health 
failed  him  and  in  the  winter  of  1791-2  he  was  succeeded 
by  Anthony  WTiiting,  a  man  who,  it  was  reported  to 
Washington,  "drank  freely — kept  bad  company  at  my 
house  and  in  Alexandria — and  was  a  very  debauched 
person."  His  habits  probably  hastened  the  relief  his 
employer  had  of  him  for  he  died  in  July,  1793.  Wash- 
ington's nephew,  Betty's  son,  Howell  Lewis,  took 
charge  during  the  few  months  pending  the  arrival  of 
William  Pearce,  in  December.  There  may  be  a  hint  to 
the  curious  in  Washington's  remark  when  he  heard  that 
Howell's  brother  Lawrence  was  available  at  the  time  of 
the  former's  engagement:  "But  after  all  is  not  Law- 


MOUNT  VERNON  195 

rence  Lewis  on  the  point  of  matrimony?  Report  says 
so,  and  if  truly,  it  would  be  an  effectual  bar  to  a  per- 
manent establishment  in  my  business,  as  I  never  again 
will  have  two  women  in  my  house  when  I  am  there  my- 
self." 

Pearce's  stewardship  covered  three  full  years.  He 
was  succeeded  by  James  Anderson  in  the  last  year  the 
President  was  absent  in  Philadelphia.  Both  these  men 
gave  their  chief  great  satisfaction.  Anderson  was  man- 
ager during  the  remaining  years  of  Washington's  life  and 
to  him  was  addressed  the  last  letter  the  great  man  wrote. 

During  the  first  five  years  of  the  General  and  Mrs. 
Washington's  absence  at  the  seat  of  government  the 
mansion  was  under  the  personal  control  of  Fanny  Wash- 
ington. Both  her  uncle  and  aunt  were  very  fond  of 
her  and  Mrs.  Washington  was  constantly  sending  her 
presents.  In  forwarding  a  newly  imported  watch  on 
one  occasion,  her  Aunt  Martha  closed  the  letter  with 
this  remembrance  of  her  little  girl:  "Kiss  Marie  I  send 
her  two  little  handkerchiefs  to  wipe  her  nose.  Adue." 

Mount  Vernon  never  lost  the  direct  influence  of  its 
master  even  during  his  long  absences.  He  exacted  a 
weekly  report  from  his  manager  by  the  post  leaving 
Alexandria  each  Thursday,  and  he,  on  his  part,  wrote 
every  week,  usually  devoting  Sunday  afternoon  to  the 
preparation  of  the  long  letters  which  covered  two  or 
three  and  even  four  large,  closely  written  pages.  Such 
was  the  importance  which  he  attached  to  these  letters 
that  he  first  made  a  rough  draft  of  them,  then  copied 
them  out  in  full  in  his  own  handwriting,  and  finally 
preserved  a  letter-press  copy.  They  directed  the  plant- 
ing, cultivating,  and  harvesting  of  crops;  building  and 


196  MOUNT  VERNON 

repairs;  the  engaging,  discharge,  discipline,  and  comfort 
of  his  servants  and  slaves;  all  with  the  same  intimate 
acquaintance  he  might  have  shown  in  his  library  in  a 
talk  with  his  manager  after  a  morning  ride  of  inspection 
over  his  farms. 

He  referred  to  the  hundreds  of  slaves  by  name,  and 
knew  each  of  their  children's;  he  knew  exactly  where 
windows  and  doors  were  to  be  placed  and  their  dimen- 
sions; what  was  boarded  and  what  was  free;  what  car- 
penters were  available  and  best  suited  to  the  various 
jobs;  what  money  he  owed  and  what  money  was  owed 
him;  the  condition  of  his  growing  crops,  the  potentiality 
of  each  field,  the  stage  of  the  foaled  mares;  and  seem- 
ingly every  other  imaginable  detail. 

That  an  absent  proprietor  with  no  other  concerns 
should  exhibit  such  a  grasp  would  be  remarkable;  that  it 
was  the  concurrent  if  not  the  secondary  interest  at  first 
of  a  general  conducting  a  great  war  and  later  of  a  presi- 
dent organizing  an  infant  nation,  excites  a  truly  natural 
wonder. 

One  of  the  new  and  important  works  put  under  way 
during  the  early  years  of  the  Presidency  was  the  circu- 
lar or  sixteen-sided  barn,  of  his  own  invention,  on  Dogue 
Run  Farm.  It  was  two  stories  high  and  sixty  feet  in 
diameter,  and  was  so  arranged  that  when  rain  drove  the 
farm  help  out  of  the  fields  they  could  here  under  shelter, 
in  the  second  story,  thresh  out  the  grain  on  a  ten-foot 
floor  of  open  slats  which  entirely  surrounded  the  central 
mows.  Another  feature  of  this  barn,  in  which  he  took- 
so  much  pride,  and  which  was  the  wonder  of  the 
neighbors,  was  an]  inclined  runway  which  admitted  the 
oxen  or  horses  up  to  the  circular  treading  floor. 


MOUNT  VERNON  197 

When  Pearce  arrived  in  1793  the  President  wrote  him 
a  characteristic  letter  giving  a  schedule  of  work  for  the 
carpenters.  They  were  to  begin  at  once  the  com- 
pletion of  the  circular  barn  and  the  stables  attached 
thereto  for  horses  and  cattle.  After  that  "the  work 
essentially  necessary  to  be  done,"  he  wrote,  was  "build- 
ing the  house  for  Crow — Repairing  my  house  in  Alex- 
andria for  Mrs.  Fanny  Washington — which  must  be 
done  before  the  first  of  May — Inclosing  the  lot  on  which 
it  stands  for  a  Garden  or  Yard. — Repairing  the  Mil- 
lers house. — Removing  the  larger  kind  of  Negro  quar- 
ters (the  smaller  ones  or  cabbins,  I  presume  the  people 
with  a  little  assistance  of  Carts  can  do  themselves)  to 
the  ground  marked  out  for  them  opposite  to  Crow's 
New  house. — Repairing  at  a  proper  time  those  he  will 
remove  from. — Lending  aid  in  drawing  the  houses  at 
River  farm  into  some  uniform  shape,  in  a  convenient 
place. — Repairing  the  Barn  and  Stables  at  Muddy- 
hole. — Compleating  the  Dormant  Windows  in  the  back 
of  the  Stable  at  Mansion  house  and  putting  two  in  the 
front  of  it  agreeably  to  directions  already  given  to 
Thomas  Green — after  which,  and  perhaps  doing  some 
other  things  which  do  not  occur  to  me  at  this  moment, 
my  intention  is  to  build  a  large  Barn,  and  sheds  for 
Stables  upon  the  plan  of  that  at  Dogue  Run  (if,  on  trial 
it  should  be  found  to  answer  to  the  expectation  wch  is 
formed  of  it)  at  River  Farm." 

In  another  letter  he  enclosed  a  schedule  of  the  bricks 
needed  for  the  barn  on  the  River  Farm.  They  were 
139,980  in  number.  In  view  of  these  extensive  im- 
provements something  had  to  be  neglected,  and  it  ap- 
pears to  have  been  the  palings  of  the  deer  park.  When 


108  MOUNT  VERNON 

Pearce  forwarded  the  gardener's  complaint  of  the  in- 
jury the  roving  animals  did  the  shrubbery,  the  General 
did  not  consider  new  palings,  rather  he  was  "at  a  loss 
whether  to  give  up  the  Shrubbery  or  the 
Deer!"  The  only  new  feature  of  the  mansion  at  this 
time  seems  to  have  been  the  "Venetian  blinds  .  .  . 
painted  green,  for  all  the  windows  on  the  West  side  of 
the  House." 

Whenever  away  from  Mount  Vernon  not  only  a  por- 
tion of  his  mind  but  all  his  heart  seems  to  have  been 
there.  He  had  better  control  of  his  emotions  in  this 
respect,  however,  than  Mrs.  Washington;  with  greater 
need.  She  was  downright  homesick.  When  the  war 
ended  they  had  hoped  to  pass  the  remainder  of  then* 
days  at  their  river  home  in  peace  and  tranquillity. 
The  renewed  absences  during  the  Presidency  fretted 
Mrs.  Washington,  she  longed  for  home  and  said  so.  She 
found  official  life  dull  and  went  about  little.  "Indeed 
I  think  I  am  more  like  a  State  prisoner  than  anything 
else,"  she  said;  "  there  is  certain  bounds  set  for  me  which 
I  must  not  depart  from — and  as  I  cannot  doe  as  I  like, 
I  am  obstinate  and  stay  at  home  a  great  deal." 

Her  husband's  love  for  Mount  Vernon  was  even  more 
passionate.  It  breathes  forth  in  letter  after  letter  in 
spite  of  his  excellent  self-control.  It  was  his  "goal  of 
domestic  enjoyment";  his  "vine  and  fig-tree"  over  and 
over  again;  and  he  dwelt  caressingly  on  its  "tranquil 
scenes"  whether  absent  or  among  them.  It  was  his 
pride  to  be  thought  the  first  farmer  in  America.  He 
declared  no  estate  to  be  so  pleasantly  situated  as  his. 
"I  can  truly  say,"  he  exclaimed,  "I  had  rather  be  at 
Mount  Vernon  with  a  friend  or  two  about  me,  than  to  be 


MOUNT  VERNON  199 

attended  at  the  seat  of  government  by  the  officers  of 
state  and  the  representatives  of  every  power  in  Europe." 
As  the  time  approached  to  relinquish  office  and  return 
to  his  plantation,  he  looked  forward  to  this  last  journey 
with  the  eagerness  of  a  freed  schoolboy,  declaring,  "No 
consideration  under  heaven,  that  I  can  foresee,  shall 
again  withdraw  me  from  the  walks  of  private  life." 

John  Adams  was  inaugurated  March  4, 1797.  Wash- 
ington thus  once  more  became  a  private  citizen.  Mr. 
Adams,  writing  his  wife,  said:  "A  solemn  scene  it  was 
indeed,  and  it  was  made  more  affecting  to  me  by  the 
presence  of  the  General,  whose  countenence  was  as  se- 
rene and  unclouded  as  the  day.  He  seemed  to  me  to 
enjoy  a  triumph  over  me.  Methought  I  heard  him  say, 
'Ay!  I  am  fairly  out  and  you  fairly  in!  See  which  of 
us  will  be  the  happiest!" 

The  citizens  of  Philadelphia  gave  Washington  a  fare- 
well dinner  under  the  great  roof  of  Rickett's  Circus. 
As  the  extensive  company  marched  in  to  the  tables, 
said  a  journal  of  the  day,  "Washington's  march  re- 
sounded through  the  place,  and  a  curtain  drew  up  which 
presented  to  view  a  transparent  full  length  painting  of 
the  late  President,  whom  Fame  is  crowning  with  a 
Wreath  of  Laurel,  taking  leave  after  delivering  to  her 
his  valedictory  address,  of  the  Genius  of  America,  who 
is  represented  by  a  Female  Figure  holding  the  Cap  of 
Liberty  in  her  hand,  with  an  Altar  before  her,  inscribed 
PUBLIC  GRATITUDE.  In  the  painting  are  intro- 
duced several  emblematic  devices  of  the  honours  he  had 
acquired  by  his  public  services,  and  a  distant  view  of 
Mount  Vernon  the  seat  of  retirement." 

On   March  9th  Washington  left  Philadelphia.    A 


200  MOUNT  VERNON 

Baltimore  paper  reported  the  party  made  up  of  "His 
Excellency  ...  his  lady  and  Miss  Custis,  the 
son  of  the  Unfortunate  LaFayette  and  his  preceptor." 
But  Washington  in  a  postscript  to  a  letter,  written  on  the 
way,  to  Lear,  indicated  others:  "On  one  side  I  am  called 
upon  to  remember  the  Parrot,  and  on  the  other  to  re- 
member the  dog.  For  my  own  part  I  should  not  pine 
much  if  both  were  forgot." 

Everywhere  along  the  route  the  illustrious  traveller 
was  met  by  escorts  of  military,  by  processions,  salutes, 
entertainments,  and  ovations  from  the  assembled 
crowds.  An  escort  of  mounted  troops  from  Alexandria 
finally  accompanied  him  to  the  gates  of  Mount  Vernon, 
where  he  arrived  on  Saturday,  April  1,  1797. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

Planter  Once  More — Repairing  the  Neglect  of  Years  of  Absence — 
Refurnishing  the  Mansion — Joking  About  Death — Renewed 
Social  Gayety — A  Letter  to  Mrs.  Fairfax — George  Wash- 
ington LaFayette — Distinguished  Visitors — Bushrod  Wash- 
ington and  John  Marshall  Bring  a  Peddler's  Pack — General 
Henry  Lee  and  His  Liberties — The  Polish  Gentleman's 
Visit — Washington's  Own  Account  of  How  He  Spent  His 
Time. 

WASHINGTON  left  the  pageantry  of  public 
life  outside  the  gates  of  Mount  Vernon.  As 
he  turned  in  and  they  closed  behind  him,  it 
was  with  a  profound  relief  and  a  tranquil  delight  that  he 
beheld,  across  the  rolling  green  lands,  centred  through 
the  opening  in  the  wall  of  woods,  his  tabernacle  of 
peace.  Just  one-half  of  all  the  years  of  his  ownership  of 
Mount  Vernon  were  given  to  the  public  service. 

He  had  come  home  to  stay.  He  sensed  it  and,  though 
a  man's  sixty-fifth  year  would  be  late  for  him  to  resume 
the  interests  of  youth,  he  began  where  he  left  off  when 
his  country  called  him  thence,  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury before,  to  lead  her  armies. 

He  acknowledged  that  he  felt  himself  a  permanent 
resident  of  Mount  Vernon  now  for  the  first  time  in 
twenty-five  years.  During  that  period  he  had  been  the 
public's  servant,  an  exile  from  his  much-desired  retire- 
ment, save  for  his  brief  "furlough"  between  the  end  of 
his  military  service  and  his  call  to  the  Presidency,  an 
interval  crowded  with  the  penalties  of  fame  and  the 

201 


20*  MOUNT  VERNON 

anxieties  of  the  prophetic  patriot  who  foresaw  the  ne- 
cessity of  a  coherent  union  and  worked  unceasingly  to 
effect  it. 

The  house  and  the  lands  and  "his  people"  retained  a 
hold  over  him  which  he  had  never  relinquished.  In  his 
letters  he  defers  a  little  to  the  current  literary  fashion 
for  sentimental  melancholy — "To  the  wearied  traveller, 
who  sees  a  resting-place,  and  is  bending  his  body  to 
rest  thereon,  I  now  compare  myself" — but  for  the  most 
part  they  teem  with  his  interest  in  the  renewed  activity. 

"For  myself,"  he  wrote  Oliver  Wolcott,  "having 
turned  aside  from  the  broad  walks  of  political,  into  the 
narrow  paths  of  private  life,  I  shall  leave  it  with  those, 
whose  duty  it  is  to  consider  subjects  of  this  sort,  and, 
(as  every  good  citizen  ought  to  do,)  conform  to  whatever 
the  ruling  powers  shall  decide.  To  make  and  sell  a 
little  flour  annually,  to  repair  houses  (going  fast  to 
rum),  to  build  one  for  the  security  of  my  papers  of  a 
public  nature,  and  to  amuse  myself  in  agricultural  and 
rural  pursuits,  will  constitute  employment  for  the  few 
years  I  have  to  remain  on  this  terrestrial  globe.  If,  to 
these,  I  could  now  and  then  meet  the  friends  I  esteem, 
it  would  fill  the  measure  and  add  zest  to  my  enjoyments; 
but,  if  ever  this  happens,  it  must  be  under  my  own  vine 
and  fig-tree,  as  I  do  not  think  it  probable  that  I  shall 
go  beyond  twenty  miles  from  them." 

"Rural  employments.  .  .  .  will  now  take  place 
of  toil, —  responsibility — and  the  solicitudes  of  attend- 
ing the  walks  of  public  life,"  he  wrote  another,  and 
Nellie  Custis  wrote  Mrs.  Wolcott  of  how  much  pleased 
her  "Grandpapa,"  as  she  called  him,  was  "with  being 
once  more  Farmer  Washington." 


MOUNT  VERNON  203 

Every  aspect  of  the  place  now  reminded  him  of  his 
absence,  for  it  had  let  down  perceptibly  at  all  points. 
He  pushed  repairs  on  his  barns,  overseers '  houses,  slave 
quarters  and  fences.  This  was  all  done  with  such  thor- 
oughness that  "  the  expense  was  almost  as  great  and  the 
employment  of  attending  to  the  workmen  almost  as 
much"  as  if  he  had  "commenced  an  entire  new  estab- 
lishment." 

In  spite  of  all  the  outlying  work,  however,  his  first 
and  most  cherished  interest  was  to  put  his  house  hi  or- 
der. "I  find  myself  in  the  situation  nearly  of  a  young 
beginner,"  he  wrote  McHenry,  "for,  although  I  have 
not  houses  to  build  (except  one,  which  I  must  erect  for 
the  accomodation  and  security  of  my  Military,  Civil, 
and  private  Papers,  which  are  voluminous  and  may  be 
interesting),  yet  I  have  not  one,  or  scarcely  anything 
else  about  me  that  does  not  require  considerable  repairs. 
In  a  word,  I  am  already  surrounded  by  Joiners,  Masons, 
Painters,  &c.,  &c.;  and  such  is  my  anxiety  to  get  out  of 
their  hands,  that  I  have  scarcely  a  room  to  put  a  friend 
into,  or  to  sit  in  myself,  without  the  music  of  hammers, 
or  the  odoriferous  smell  of  paint." 

The  exact  nature  of  the  work  on  the  mansion  he  re- 
vealed in  a  letter  to  his  faithful  and  much-appreciated 
Lear,  who  remained  behind  in  Philadelphia  to  close  the 
house  the  President  had  occupied,  pack  and  ship  such 
furnishings  as  were  wanted  at  Mount  Vernon,  and  sell 
the  balance: 

"The  work  immediately  foreseen  and  which  must  be 
done  without  delay,  is  to  refix  the  marble  Chimney 
piece  in  the  parlour,  which  is  almost  falling  out,  to  fix 


204  MOUNT  VERNON 

the  new  one  (expected  from  Philadelphia)  in  the  small 
dining  Room;  to  remove  the  one  now  there,  into  what 
is  called  the  School  room, — to  fix  the  grate  which  is 
coming  round  in  the  large  dining  room; — and  to  give 
some  repairs  to  the  steps;  which  (like  most  things  else 
I  have  looked  into  since  I  have  been  home)  are  sadly 
out  of  repair." 

That  twelve  busy  months  were  exacted  for  this  work 
is  learned  from  a  letter  written  a  year  later  to  his  old 
neighbor,  Sarah  Fairfax,  the  widow  of  Colonel  George 
William  Fairfax,  a  letter  which  confirms  again  the  time 
when  he  made  the  last  former  repairs  to  the  mansion : 

"Before  the  war,  and  even  while  it  existed,  although 
I  was  eight  years  from  home  at  one  stretch,  (except  the 
en  passant  visits  made  to  it  on  my  marches  to  and  from 
the  seige  of  Yorktown,)  I  made  considerable  additions 
to  my  dwelling-houses,  and  alterations  in  my  offices  and 
gardens;  but  the  delapidation  occasioned  by  time,  and 
those  neglects,  which  are  coextensive  with  the  absence 
of  proprieters,  have  occupied  as  much  of  my  time  within 
the  last  twelve  months  in  repairing  them,  as  at  any 
former  period  in  the  same  space;  and  it  is  matter  of  sore 
regret,  when  I  cast  my  eyes  towards  Belvoir,  which  I 
often  do,  to  reflect,  the  former  inhabitants  of  it,  with 
whom  we  lived  in  such  harmony  and  friendship,  no 
longer  reside  there,  and  that  the  ruins  can  only  be 
viewed  as  the  memento  of  former  pleasures." 

The  interior  of  the  mansion  took  on  a  more  elaborate 
effect  at  this  time  by  reason  of  the  addition  of  much  of 
the  fine  furniture,  silver,  china,  glass,  and  other  fur- 


MOUNT  VERNON  205 

nishings  which  the  General  and  his  wife  had  accumu- 
lated at  the  Presidential  Mansion  in  Philadelphia,  and 
of  numerous  curious  and  elegant  presents  admirers 
had  sent  Washington.  Among  them  were  the  harpsi- 
chord which  he  imported  from  London  for  Nellie 
Custis,  and  over  which  she  spent  so  many  many  hours 
of  practice  under  the  disciplinary  eye  of  her  grand- 
mother; the  small  (twenty  by  thirty  inches)  Trum- 
bull  portrait  of  the  General  standing  by  the  side  of  his 
horse;  the  shaving  stand  which  was  presented  to  him 
by  the  first  French  Minister  to  this  country;  and  the 
oak  box  made  from  the  tree  which  sheltered  the  great 
Sir  William  Wallace  after  the  battle  of  Falkirk,  and 
sent  to  Washington  by  the  Earl  of  Buchan. 

As  the  General  had  ridden  home  amid  the  applause 
of  the  crowds  which  saluted  him  on  every  hand,  his 
thoughts  seem  to  have  been  well  fastened  on  the  re- 
furnishing of  his  house,  for  directions  for  the  choice 
and  packing  of  what  he  desired  filled  letters  which  he 
posted  to  Lear  at  each  principal  stop  after  they  left 
Philadelphia.  The  large  looking  glasses,  "the  grate 
(from  Mr.  Morris's),"  the  "bedstead  which  Nellie 
Custis  slept  on,"  and  "the  trundle  under  it"  were  all  to 
be  packed  carefully  against  tossing  in  the  vessel's  hold. 
He  desires  "new  Carpeting  as  will  cover  the  floor  of  my 
blue  Parlour,"  Wilton  if  it  is  "not  much  dearer  than 
Scotch  Carpeting."  ...  "a  suitable  border  if  to 
be  had,  should  accompany  the  Carpeting"  .  .  . 
"all  the  Carpeting  belonging  to  me  I  would  have  sent; — 
and  Mrs.  Washington  requests  that  you  would  add  the 
Bellows  and  the  Vessels  (Iron  &  Tin)  in  which  the 
ashes  are  carried  out."  .  .  "Desire  Peter  For- 


206  MOUNT  VERNON 

cupine's  Gazette  to  be  sent  to  me  (as  a  subscriber)." 
.  .  .  "Pray  get  me  of  those  Thermometers  that 
tell  the  state  of  the  Mercury  within  the  24  hours — 
Doctor  Priestly  or  Mr.  Madison  can  tell  where  it  is 
to  be  had."  .  .  .  "Let  me  request  the  favour  of 
you  to  purchase  for  me  hah*  a  dozen  pair  of  the  best 
kind  of  White  Silk  stockings  (not  those  with  gores  but) 
to  be  large,  and  with  small  clocks  (I  think  they  are 
called)  I  want  the  same  number  of  raw  silk,  for  boot 
stockings;  large  and  strong." 

In  connection  with  these  attentions  to  refurnishing, 
there  are  traditions  that  he  kept  certain  curtain  cor- 
nices and  the  painting  of  Vernon's  fleet  riding  before 
Carthagena,  both  of  which  were  in  the  house  when  he 
first  came  there  to  live,  and  have  been  there  ever  since, 
accredited  veterans  of  the  chattels  of  the  mansion. 

Life  appeared  very  full  and  very  sweet,  in  spite 
of  minor  occasional  complaints.  As  Christmas  ap- 
proached the  General  made  a  draft  of  a  letter  to  Mrs. 
Powell  for  Martha,  who  seems  not  to  have  been  willing 
to  compose  her  own  letters  in  later  life,  and  it  reflected 
their  gay  mood: 

"I  am  now,  by  desire  of  the  General  to  add  a  few 
words  on  his  behalf;  which  he  desires  may  be  ex- 
pressed in  the  terms  following,  that  is  to  say, — that 
despairing  of  hearing  what  may  be  said  of  him,  if  he 
should  really  go  off  in  an  apoplectic,  or  any  other  fit 
(for  he  thinks  that  all  fits  that  issue  in  death  are  worse 
than  a  love  fit,  a  fit  of  laughter,  and  many  other  kinds 
that  he  could  name) — he  is  glad  to  hear  beforehand 
what  will  be  said  of  him  on  that  occasion ; — conceiving 


MOUNT  VERNON  207 

that  nothing  extra:  will  happen  between  this  and  then 
to  make  a  change  in  his  character  for  better,  or  for 
worse. — And  besides,  as  he  has  entered  into  an  engage- 
ment with  Mr.  Morris,  and  several  other  Gentlemen, 
not  to  quit  the  theatre  of  this  world  before  the  year 
1800,  it  may  be  relied  upon  that  no  breach  of  contract 
shall  be  laid  to  him  on  that  account,  unless  dire  neces- 
sity should  bring  it  about,  maugre  all  his  exertions  to  the 
contrary. — In  that  case,  he  shall  hope  they  would  do  by 
him  as  he  would  do  by  them — excuse  it.  At  present 
there  seems  no  danger  of  his  giving  them  the  slip,  as 
neither  his  health  nor  spirits,  were  ever  in  greater  flow, 
notwithstanding,  he  adds,  he  is  descending,  and  has 
almost  reached,  the  bottom  of  the  hill; — or  in  other 
words,  the  shades  below." 

Life  in  the  mansion  was  never  gayer  than  now. 
Young  Custis  was  away  part  of  the  time,  to  be  sure, 
pursuing  his  studies  at  college,  but  his  sister  Nellie 
was  now  a  beautiful  young  woman  of  nearly  twenty 
and  enlivened  the  house  with  her  girlish  spirit,  her 
troops  of  friends,  and  not  least  with  the  piquancy  of 
an  inevitable  romance.  Her  elder  sisters,  Mrs.  Law 
and  Mrs.  Peter,  with  their  husbands  and  children 
drove  down  frequently  from  their  homes  in  George- 
town and  Washington;  so  did  their  mother,  now  Mrs. 
Doctor  Stuart,  from  her  new  home,  Hope  Park,  west- 
ward, near  Ravens  worth.  The  Lewis  boys,  sons  of 
Betty  Washington  Lewis,  were  frequent  visitors;  as 
were  other  nephews  and  nieces  of  both  the  General 
and  Mrs.  Washington. 

Mount  Vernon  was  the  rallying  point  as  formerly  for 


208  MOUNT  VERNON 

the  extended  neighborhood,  though  there  were  changes 
enough  since  the  days  of  hunts  and  dinners  and  dances 
at  Belvoir  and  Guns  ton  Hall,  the  sprightly  racing  sea- 
sons at  Annapolis,  and  the  frequent  balls  at  Alexandria. 
In  another  letter  which  the  General  wrote  for  his  wife 
to  copy  and  send  to  their  friend  Mrs.  Fairfax  in  Eng- 
land, he  reviews  the  neighborhood  changes: 

"It  is  among  my  greatest  regrets,  now  I  am  again 
fixed  (I  hope  for  life)  at  this  place,  at  not  having  you  as 
a  neighbor  and  companion.  This  loss  was  not  sensibly 
felt  by  me  while  I  was  a  kind  of  perambulator,  during 
eight  or  nine  years  of  the  war,  and  during  other  eight 
years  which  I  resided  at  the  seat  of  the  general  govern- 
ment, occupied  in  scenes  more  busy,  tho'  not  more 
happy,  than  in  the  tranquil  employment  of  rural  life 
with  which  my  days  will  close. 

"The  changes  which  have  taken  place  in  this  coun- 
try, since  you  left  it  (and  it  is  pretty  much  the  same  in 
all  other  parts  of  this  State)  are,  in  one  word,  total. 
In  Alexandria,  I  do  not  believe  there  lives  at  this  day 
a  single  family  with  which  you  had  the  smallest  ac- 
quaintance. In  our  neighborhood  Colo.  Mason,  Colo. 
McCarty  and  wife,  Mr.  Chichestor,  Mr.  Lund  Wash- 
ington and  all  the  Wageners,  have  left  the  stage  of 
human  life;  and  our  visitors  on  the  Maryland  side 
are  gone  and  going  likewise.  .  .  .  With  respect 
to  my  own  family,  it  will  not  I  presume,  be  new  to  you 
to  hear  that  my  son  died  in  the  fall  of  1781.  He  left 
four  fine  children,  three  daughters  and  a  son;  the  two 
eldest  of  the  former  are  married,  and  have  three  chil- 
dren between  them,  all  girls.  .  .  .  Both  live  in  the 


MOUNT  VERNON  209 

federal  city.  The  youngest  daughter,  Eleanor,  is  yet 
single,  and  lives  with  me,  having  done  so  from  an 
infant;  as  has  my  grandson  George  Washington,  now 
turned  seventeen,  except  when  at  college;  to  three  of 
which  he  has  been — viz — Philadelphia,  New  Jersey 
and  Annapolis,  at  the  last  of  which  he  now  is." 

To  Mrs.  Knox  she  wrote: 

"The  General  and  I  feel  like  children  just  released 
from  school  or  from  a  hard  taskmaster,  and  we  believe 
that  nothing  can  tempt  us  to  leave  the  sacred  roof  tree 
again,  except  on  private  business  or  pleasure.  We  are 
so  penurious  with  our  enjoyment  that  we  are  loth  to 
share  it  with  any  one  but  dear  friends,  yet  almost 
every  day  some  stranger  claims  a  portion  of  it,  and  we 
cannot  refuse.  .  .  .  Our  furniture  and  other  things 
sent  us  from  Philadelphia  arrived  safely,  our  plate  we 
brought  with  us  in  the  carriage.  ...  I  am  again 
fairly  settled  down  to  the  pleasant  duties  of  an  old- 
fashioned  Virginia  house-keeper,  steady  as  a  clock,  busy 
as  a  bee,  and  cheerful  as  a  cricket." 

;  When  returning  from  Philadelphia  the  General 
brought  home  with  him  George  Washington  LaFayette, 
son  of  his  dear  Marquis,  who  was  accompanied  by  his 
tutor,  M.  Frestel.  The  young  man  had  been  in  Amer- 
ica nearly  two  years,  but  so  long  as  Washington  held  an 
official  position  reasons  of  state  made  it  inexpedient  to 
invite  him  into  his  own  family,  but  when  he  was  again 
a  private  citizen  he  at  once  welcomed  the  young  man 
to  his  home  with  the  tenderness  of  a  father.  A  report 


210  MOUNT  VERNON 

of  LaFayette's  release  from  prison  reached  America 
in  the  autumn  and  his  son  sailed  for  France  October 
26th.  It  was  not  his  last  visit  to  American  or  to  Mount 
Vernon. 

Other  distinguished  emigres  who  had  not  been  re- 
ceived by  the  President  in  Philadelphia,  but  were  later 
welcomed  at  his  home  on  the  Potomac,  included  the 
Due  d'Orleans,  afterward  Louis  Philippe,  and  his 
brothers,  Montpensier  and  Beaujolais. 

During  '97  and  '98  came  Volney,  the  freethinker,  for 
a  recommendation,  and  received  the  equivocal  "C. 
Volney  needs  no  recommendation  from  Geo.  Wash- 
ington"; Benjamin  H.  Latrobe,  Amariah  Frost,  and 
Mr.  Niemcewitz,  "the  companion  of  General  Kosci- 
aski,"  all  of  whom  wrote  valued  descriptions  of  Mount 
Vernon  and  of  Washington;  young  Charles  Carroll 
of  Carrollton,  suspected  of  sentimental  intentions  in 
regard  to  Nellie  Custis;  and  once,  on  the  same  day, 
"Mr  Law6  Washington  of  Chotanck  &  Mr  Law6  Wash- 
ington of  Belmont  came  to  dinner." 

The  arrival  "one  autumn  day  of  Bushrod  Washington 
and  his  friend  John  Marshall,  later  Chief  Justice  of  the 
United  States,  afforded  one  of  the  most  amusing  tradi- 
tions of  the  place.  They  came,  as  the  story  runs,  on 
horseback,  "attended  by  a  black  servant,  who  had 
charge  of  a  large  black  portmanteau  containing  their 
clothes.  As  they  passed  through  a  wood  on  the  skirts 
of  the  Mount  Vernon  grounds  they  were  tempted  to 
make  a  hasty  toilet  beneath  its  shade;  being  covered 
with  dust  from  the  state  of  the  roads.  Dismounting, 
they  threw  off  their  dusty  garments,  while  the  servant 
took  down  the  portmanteau.  As  he  opened  it,  out 


MOUNT  VERNON  211 

flew  cakes  of  Windsor  soap  and  fancy  articles  of  all 
kinds.  The  man  by  mistake  had  changed  their  port- 
manteau at  the  last  stopping  place  for  one  which  re- 
sembled it,  belonging  to  a  Scotch  pedlar.  The  con- 
sternation of  the  negro,  and  their  own  dismantled  state, 
struck  them  so  ludicrously  as  to  produce  loud  and  re- 
peated bursts  of  laughter.  Washington,  who  happened 
to  be  out  upon  his  grounds,  was  attracted  by  the  noise, 
and  was  so  overcome  by  the  strange  plight  of  his  friends, 
and  the  whimsicality  of  the  whole  scene,  that  he  is  said 
to  have  actually  rolled  on  the  grass  with  laughter." 

More  frequently  than  many  others  came  General 
Henry  Lee  who,  of  all  of  them,  stood  least  in  awe  of  the 
majestic  Washington.  Tradition  has  floated  down  nu- 
merous anecdotes  of  his  table  talk  at  Mount  Vernon. 

On  one  occasion  Lee  quoted  Gilbert  Stuart,  the  por- 
trait painter,  as  having  said  that  the  General  had  a 
tremendous  temper.  Mrs.  Washington  colored  and 
said  that  "Mr.  Stuart  took  a  great  deal  on  himself." 
Lee  then  said  that  Stuart  had  added  that  the  General 
had  his  temper  under  wonderful  control.  After  a 
thoughtful  pause  the  General  himself  smiled  and  re- 
marked, "Mr.  Stuart  is  right." 

On  another  occasion  General  Lee  expressed  the  wide- 
spread amazement  at  the  vast  amount  of  work  Wash- 
ington did.  "Sir,"  he  replied,  "I  rise  at  four  o'clock 
and  a  great  deal  of  my  work  is  done  while  others  sleep." 

Lee's  great  impertinence  was  committed  at  table  one 
day  when  Washington  remarked  that  he  wanted  new 
carriage  horses  and  asked  Lee  if  he  could  get  him  a  pair. 
"I  have  a  fine  pair,  General,"  answered  Lee,  "but  you 
cannot  get  them."  "Why  not?"  asked  his  host.  "Be- 


MOUNT  VERNON 

cause,"  Lee  replied,  "y°u  will  never  pay  more  than  half 
price  for  anything;  and  I  must  have  full  price  for  my 
horses."  At  this  Mrs.  Washington  laughed  and  was 
joined  by  her  parrot,  perched  near  her,  doubtless  the 
same  one  the  General  had  the  care  of  on  his  way  home. 
Washington  yielded  to  the  situation  and  said  with  good 
humor:  "Ah,  Lee,  you  are  a  funny  fellow,  see  that  bird 
is  laughing  at  you." 

The  General  and  Mrs.  Washington  defended  them- 
selves from  the  overrunning  visitors,  who  would  have 
left  them  no  life  of  their  own,  by  a  well-understood  for- 
mality which  restricted  certain  time  for  their  own.  It 
was  at  the  dinner  hour  after  his  ride  over  the  farms  that 
Washington's  visitors  saw  him  first.  After  dinner  he 
spent  an  interval  talking  with  them,  "with  a  glass  of 
Madeira  by  his  side,"  and  then  withdrew  to  his  library 
again  where  he  made  a  hasty  survey  of  the  newspapers, 
of  which  he  received  a  great  many,  and  retired  for  the 
night  at  nine  o'clock,  if  possible  without  appearing  at 
supper. 

Mrs.  Washington's  first  appearance  in  the  morning 
seems  to  have  been  "precisely  at  eleven,"  when  she 
spent  an  hour  with  her  guests,  who  were  expected  to  be 
waiting  her  at  that  time.  When  the  clock  struck  twelve 
she  would  bid  them  good-morning  and  ascend  to  her 
chamber,  to  reappear  punctually  on  the  stroke  of  one. 
At  this  tune  she  was  followed  by  a  servant  with  a  bowl 
of  punch  which  was  served.  She  presided  at  the  supper 
table  and  spent  the  evening  with  her  guests. 

It  was  Kosciuszko's  friend  who  left  one  of  the  most 
graphic  sketches  of  life  and  conditions  at  Mount  Vernon 
at  this  time  which  survives.  He  journeyed  thither  with 


ELEANOR   ("NELLIE")    PARKE  CUSTIS 
Granddaughter   of   Martha   Washington   from   a   painting   by   Gilbert  Stuart 


MOUNT  VERNON  213 

Mr.  Law.  When  they  arrived  the  General  was  absent 
on  his  morning  tour  of  his  estate,  but  "his  lady  ap- 
peared in  a  few  minutes,  welcomed  us  most  agreeably, 
and  hastened  to  serve  punch.  At  two  o'clock  the  Gen- 
eral arrived  on  the  back  of  a  grey  horse.  He  descended, 
shook  hands,  and  gave  a  lash  to  his  horse,  which  went 
alone  to  the  stable.  After  a  short  conversation  he  re- 
tired in  order  to  change  his  dress.'* 

The  visitor  then  inspected  the  house.  In  the  hall  he 
found  "a  kind  of  crystal  lantern  contains  the  true  key  of 
the  Bastille  "  and  underneath  it  hung  "  a  picture  represent- 
ing the  destruction  of  that  formidable  castle."  The 
model  of  the  Bastille  carved  from  one  of  its  stones  stood 
on  the  piazza,  "it  is  a  pity  that  children  have  spoiled  it 
a  little."  At  this  time,  from  the  Polish  gentleman's 
account,  Washington's  bedroom  seems  to  have  been  on 
the  ground  floor;  probably  a  temporary  arrangement. 
The  views  from  the  portico  excited  his  liveliest  enthu- 
siasm. "This  gallery  is  the  place  where  the  General  and 
his  family  spend  their  afternoons  with  their  guests,  en- 
joying fresh  air  and  the  beautiful  scenery. "... 

He  gives  this  glimpse  of  the  spirit  of  youth  which 
Nellie  Custis  brought  into  the  picture:  "About  three 
o'clock  a  carriage  drawn  by  two  horses,  accompanied  by 
a  young  man  on  horseback,  stopped  before  the  door.  A 
young  lady  of  the  most  wonderful  beauty,  closely  fol- 
lowed by  an  elderly  attendant,  descended.  She  was  one 
of  those  celestial  beings  so  rarely  produced  by  nature, 
sometimes  dreamt  of  by  poets  and  painters,  which  one 
cannot  see  without  a  feeling  of  ecstacy.  Her  sweetness 
equals  her  beauty,  and  that  is  perfect.  She  has  many 
accomplishments.  She  plays  on  the  piano,  she  sings 


214  MOUNT  VERNON 

and  designs  better  than  the  usual  woman  of  America  or 
even  of  Europe." 

The  deer-park  palings  had  now  rotted  and  the  deer 
were  scattered.  But  when  a  group  of  bucks  came 
browsing  in  sight  of  the  mansion,  "the  General  pro- 
posed to  me  to  go  to  see  them  nearer.  We  went.  He 
walks  very  quickly.  I  could  scarcely  follow  him." 
But  the  bucks  observed  their  approach  and  disappeared 
in  the  woods. 

How  the  time  passed  with  Washington  himself,  he 
told,  when  he  became  the  historian  of  one  of  his  days, 
" which  will  serve  for  a  year,"  in  a  letter  to  his  friend 
James  McHenry: 

''You  are  at  the  source  of  information,  and  can  find 
many  things  to  relate;  while  I  have  nothing  to  say,  that 
could  either  inform  or  amuse  a  Secretary  at  WTar  in 
Philadelphia.  I  might  tell  him,  that  I  begin  my 
diurnal  course  with  the  sun;  that,  if  my  hirelings  are  not 
in  then*  places  at  that  time  I  send  them  messages  ex- 
pressive of  my  sorrow  at  their  indisposition;  that,  hav- 
ing put  these  wheels  in  motion,  I  examine  the  state  of 
things  further;  and  the  more  they  are  probed,  the  deeper 
I  find  the  wounds  are  which  my  buildings  have  sustained 
by  an  absence  and  neglect  of  eight  years;  by  the  time  I 
have  accomplished  these  matters,  breakfast  (a  little 
after  seven  o'clock,  about  the  time  I  presume  you  are 
taking  leave  of  Mrs.  McHenry),  is  ready;  that,  this 
being  over,  I  mount  my  horse  and  ride  round  my  farms, 
which  employs  me  until  it  is  time  to  dress  for  dinner,  at 
which  I  rarely  miss  seeing  strange  faces,  come  as  they 
say  out  of  respect  for  me.  Pray,  would  not  the  word 


MOUNT  VERNON  215 

curiosity  answer  as  well?  And  how  different  this  from 
having  a  few  social  friends  at  a  cheerful  board!  The 
usual  time  of  sitting  at  table,  a  walk,  and  tea,  brings  me 
within  the  dawn  of  candlelight;  previous  to  which,  if  not 
prevented  by  company,  I  resolve,  that,  as  soon  as  the 
glimmering  taper  supplies  the  place  of  the  great  lumi- 
nary, I  will  retire  to  my  writing-table  and  acknowledge 
the  letters  I  have  received;  but  when  the  lights  are 
brought,  I  feel  tired  and  disinclined  to  engage  in  this 
work,  conceiving  that  the  next  night  will  do  as  well. 
The  next  comes,  and  with  it  the  same  causes  for  post- 
ponement, and  effect,  and  so  on. 

"This  will  account  for  your  letter  remaining  so  long 
unacknowledged ;  and,  having  given  you  the  history  of  a 
day,  it  will  serve  for  a  year,  and  I  am  persuaded  you  will 
not  require  a  second  edition  of  it.  But  it  may  strike 
you,  that  in  this  detail  no  mention  is  made  of  any  por- 
tion of  time  alloted  for  reading.  The  remark  would  be 
just,  for  I  have  not  looked  into  a  book  since  I  came  home 
nor  shall  I  be  able  to  do  it  until  I  have  discharged 
my  workmen,  probably  not  before  the  nights  grow 
longer,  when  possibly  I  may  be  looking  in  Doomsday- 
Book." 


CHAPTER  XVII 

The  Year  1799 — Washington's  Fortieth  Wedding  Anniversary 
— Two  Birthday  Celebrations — Wedding  of  Nellie  Custis 
and  Lawrence  Lewis — A  Gay  Summer — First  Dinner  Alone 
with  Mrs.  Washington  in  Twenty  Years — Bankruptcy  by 
Hospitality — Mount  Vernon  Washington's  Consuming  In- 
terest— A  Luxury — The  Rickety  Stairway  at  the  Polls — A 
Birth  in  the  Mansion — Washington  Survives  His  Sister  and 
All  His  Brothers — Last  Dinner  Parties  at  Mount  Eagle  and 
Mount  Vernon — Caught  in  a  Storm — Last  Illness — Death 
— Funeral. 

THE  year  of  1799  was  one  of  singular  range  and 
variety  at  Mount  Vernon.  It  found  the 
estate  in  its  highest  stage  of  development. 
The  mansion  was  in  perfect  condition  and  was  adorned 
with  the  taste  and  the  trophies  of  Washington's 
matured  career.  From  without  the  admiration  and  ap- 
plause of  the  world  centred  here  on  its  illustrious  master. 

As  month  after  month  slipped  by  the  round  of  gayety, 
the  number  of  visitors,  and  the  events  of  significance 
were,  perhaps,  more  numerous  than  in  any  other  year 
of  its  long  life.  It  saw  the  culmination  of  a  romance  in 
marriage,  the  fruition  of  that  union  in  birth  and,  in  its 
last  month,  transpired  the  final  scene  in  the  immortal 
career  of  which  Mount  Vernon  was  the  principal  set- 
ting. 

The  sixth  day  of  the  first  month  brought  the  fortieth 
anniversary  of  the  General's  marriage  to  Martha  Custis. 
If  it  was  not  celebrated,  the  day  did  not  pass  unnoticed 

216 


MOUNT  VERNON  217 

by  them,  for  Washington  was  not  without  sentiment. 
On  a  gold  chain  about  his  neck,  for  many  years,  until 
the  end  of  his  life  and  beyond,  he  wore  a  miniature  por- 
trait of  his  wife. 

In  February  he  was  the  guest  of  the  citizens  of  Alex- 
andria for  their  customary  celebration  of  his  birthday. 
"Many  Manoeuvres  were  performed  by  the  Uniform 
Corps — and  an  elegant  Ball  &  supper  at  Night."  This 
was  the  entry  in  the  diary  for  the  llth  of  the  month. 
Washington  was  born  February  llth,  old  style.  The 
new  calendar  was  in  vogue  shortly  after,  which  moved 
his  birthday  up  to  the  22d,  but  the  old  friends  clung  to 
the  old  fashion,  and  so  as  long  as  he  was  with  them  his 
neighbors  in  the  little  city  up  river  celebrated  on  the 
llth. 

His  birthday  was  celebrated  twice  this  year  of  1799, 
the  second  time  on  the  22d,  within  the  walls  of  his  own 
home.  There  "Miss  Custis  was  married  abfc  Candle 
Light  to  Mr  Law6  Lewis."  Washington  chronicled 
events  in  deceptively  few  words.  The  wedding  was  in 
fact  a  brilliant  occasion  and  was  the  culmination  of  a 
romance  which  enlisted  the  General's  most  interested 
solicitude,  for  Nellie  Custis  was  the  object,  next  to  his 
wife,  of  his  tenderest  affection.  She  came  into  his  life  at 
a  time  when  it  was  apparent  that  his  union  would  not  be 
blessed  with  a  child  of  his  own.  He  adopted  her  and 
brought  her  to  Mount  Vernon,  and  she  never  knew  any 
other  father  or  any  other  home  than  his. 

She  was  known  and  loved  by  .every  servant  and  slave 
on  the  place.  To  them  as  to  all  who  came  to  Mount 
Vernon  in  the  later  years  of  Washington's  life,  she  rep- 
resented the  youth  of  the  place.  They  had  seen  her 


218  MOUNT  VERNON 

grow  up  and  watched  her  romance,  and  sensed  it  and 
gossiped  it  possibly  before  she  realized  it  herself;  for  it 
was  wholly  of  Mount  Vernon. 

Lawrence  Lewis  was  the  General's  nephew,  son  of 
his  sister  Betty,  and  a  member  of  the  household.  He 
had,  some  time  before,  become  a  member  of  the  family 
at  the  mansion  for  the  purpose  of  assisting  in  the  enter- 
tainment of  the  visitors,  "particularly  of  nights,"  his 
uncle  said,  "as  it  is  my  inclination  to  retire  (and  unless 
prevented  by  very  particular  company,  I  always  do 
retire)  either  to  bed  or  to  my  study  soon  after  candle 
light." 

It  was  in  the  gardens,  along  the  walks,  and  in  the 
quiet  corners  of  the  old  mansion  that  Lawrence  and 
Nellie  were  drawn  together,  and  love  held  them.  .  He 
was  offered  another  commission  in  the  military  service 
just  before  his  marriage  but  he  declined  it,  which  caused 
the  General  to  remark  that  his  nephew  had  relinquished 
"the  lapp  of  Mars  for  the  Sports  of  Venus." 

With  the  arrival  of  spring  visiting  abroad  began. 
There  were  the  races,  dinners,  and  Independence  Day 
celebration  in  Alexandria;  visits  to  the  homes  of  Mrs. 
Washington's  granddaughters,  Mrs.  Law  and  Mrs. 
Peter,  in  Washington  City  and  its  suburb,  George- 
town; tours  afield  to  run  surveys  of  his  land  about 
Four  Mile  Run  between  Alexandria  and  Washington 
City;  and  once  faring  forth  as  far  as  Difficult  Run, 
some  twenty  miles  northwest  of  his  home — with  one 
exception,  farther  than  he  had  ventured  from  Mount 
Vernon  after  he  retired  from  the  public  service.  That 
exception  was  his  visit  to  Philadelphia  during  the 
previous  November  and  December,  when  war  threat- 


MOUNT  VERNON  219 

ened  with  France  and  he  was  again  called  to  command 
the  armies  of  his  country. 

It  was  a  gay  summer  at  the  mansion,  if  possible  with 
more  guests  than  ever.  Though  when  had  it  been 
without  guests  ?  A  short  time  before  this  the  General  had 
written  Lear  that  "Mrs.  Washington  &  myself  will 
do  what  I  believe  has  not  been  done  within  the  last 
twenty  years  by  us, — that  is  set  down  to  dinner  by  our- 
selves." 

Small  wonder  he  compared  his  house  to  "a  well  re- 
sorted tavern"  and  to  the  end  of  his  life  complained  of 
being  poor.  Hospitality  did  its  share  to  beget  many 
a  pinched  pocketbook.  Much  less  sought-after  Vir- 
ginians than  Washington  bent  under  the  strain  of 
Virginia  hospitality,  the  unending  procession  of  visitors, 
singly,  by  coach  loads,  and  by  whole  families.  It  is 
said  of  Henry  Fitzhugh  of  Eagle's  Nest,  in  Stafford 
County,  that  he  found  his  whole  substance  was  going 
to  the  support  of  the  public,  and  in  sheer  economy  he 
built  Ravensworth  in  Fairfax  County,  some  ten  miles 
northwest  of  Mount  Vernon,  to  be  away  from  the  well- 
travelled  highways.  Hospitality  bankrupted  General 
Henry  Lee. 

Washington's  wealth  was  never  the  production  of 
his  Mount  Vernon  farms.  A  luxury  they  remained 
to  the  end,  a  toy  of  his  thoughts  and  plans  and  experi- 
ments. This  year  of  '99  he  completed  an  elaborate 
system  for  the  cultivation  of  his  plantations,  with 
tables  to  govern  his  overseers  in  the  rotation  of  the 
crops.  It  covered  thirty  large  pages  closely  written 
by  his  own  hand,  and  it  remains  one  of  the  testimonials 
to  his  genius  for  organization  and  detail,  and  the  sound- 


220  MOUNT  VERNON 

ness  of  his  mind  and  the  clearness  of  his  perceptions  in 
the  sixty-seventh  year  of  his  life. 

Mount  Vernon  now  absorbed  Washington  more  and 
more,  to  the  exclusion  of  other  interests,  and  the  public 
life  receded  farther  into  the  background  of  memory. 
Though  to  the  neighbors  he  was  by  name  "the  old 
General,"  neighborly  feeling  eclipsed  the  significance 
of  the  title  and  to  them  he  became  merely  a  planter, 
"a  clear-headed,  sensible  man,  whose  opinion  was  worth 
having,  and  who  was  well  worth  consulting  in  farming 
matters  or  on  common  business." 

Their  traditional  picture  of  him  was  a  rugged  old 
gentleman,  dressed  in  gray  clothes,  a  broad-brimmed 
hat  on  his  head,  and  an  umbrella  under  his  arm,  sitting 
his  horse  like  a  centaur,  and  riding  afield  to  the  extremi- 
ties of  his  estate,  slipping  out  of  the  saddle  on  occasion 
to  chat  with  his  old  legionaries — Jack  of  Jack's  Mill, 
the  Mill  at  Epsewasson  of  his  third  year  above  three- 
score years  before,  and  Gray  of  Gray's  Hill,  on  that 
ridge  which  includes  Woodlawn,  the  land  for  which  was 
his  wedding  present  to  Nellie  and  Lawrence,  and  was 
called  by  him  "a  most  beautiful  site  for  a  Gentlemans 
seat." 

When  the  Gentlemen  of  the  Alexandria  Assemblies 
sent  then*  polite  invitation  to  the  General  and  his  wife 
for  their  winter  dances,  he  replied  that  his  dancing 
days  were  over.  But  he  drove  up  to  town  frequently 
for  visits  that  included  a  duck  dinner  at  mine  host 
Gadsby's  City  Hotel,  a  review  of  Captain  Piercy's 
Independent  Blues,  and  the  casting  of  his  last  vote. 
The  polling  place  was  up  a  flight  of  outside  steps,  so 
rickety  that,  when  the  huge  form  of  the  General  ap- 


MOUNT  VERNON  221 

preached  their  foot,  the  bystanders,  apprehending 
danger  to  him,  with  silent  and  spontaneous  accord 
braced  the  stairway  with  their  shoulders  as  he  mounted, 
and  waited  there  until  he  descended. 

November  was  a  month  of  expectation  and  great 
preparation  in  the  mansion.  Nellie  and  Lawrence  had 
been  back  some  time  since  from  their  honeymoon. 
Finally  their  old  friend  Doctor  Craik  was  summoned 
on  the  27th,  "came  to  Breakfast  &  stayed  dinner,"  and 
during  the  forenoon  Nellie's  first  child,  a  daughter,  was 
born. 

In  the  early  autumn  had  come  word  of  the  General's 
brother  Charles  Washington's  death.  "  I  was  the  first, 
and  am,  now,  the  last  of  my  father's  children  by  the 
second  marriage  who  remain,"  he  said.  "  When  I  shall  be 
called  upon  to  follow  them,  is  known  only  to  the  Giver  of 
Life.  When  the  summons  comes  I  shall  endeavor  to 
obey  it  with  a  good  grace."  With  that  time  in  view 
he  pointed  out  to  Lawrence  Lewis,  in  early  December, 
where  he  intended  to  build  a  new  burial  vault  to  replace 
the  old  vault  which  had  begun  to  weaken  under  the 
ferreting  roots  of  the  trees  growing  above  it.  He  de- 
clared this  would  be  the  next  improvement  he  would 
make,  adding  "for  after  all,  I  may  require  it  before  the 
rest." 

On  Saturday,  the  7th  of  December,  Washington 
drove  up  to  Mount  Eagle  on  Great  Hunting  Creek  and 
dined  with  Bryan  Fairfax  and  his  family.  When  he 
returned  home  he  did  not  leave  Mount  Vernon  again. 
There  was  something  of  a  family  party  over  Sunday, 
the  8th,  but  on  Monday  Lawrence  Lewis  and  Washing- 
ton Custis  set  off  for  New  Kent  on  the  York,  and  an- 


222  MOUNT  VERNON 

other  nephew,  Ho  well  Lewis,  and  his  wife,  departed 
for  their  home.  On  Wednesday  he  had  quite  a  dinner 
party  about  him,  including  Bryan  Fairfax,  his  son  and 
daughter,  Mrs.  Warner  Washington  and  her  son  Whit- 
ing, and  Mr.  John  Herbert. 

Washington  was  apparently  in  his  usual  health. 
Following  his  daily  custom  of  riding  over  his  farms  be- 
tween breakfast  and  dinner,  he  was,  on  Thursday, 
caught  out  in  a  storm  of  snow,  hail,  and  sleet,  and  re- 
turned to  the  mansion  through  a  settled  cold  rain.  He 
believed  his  greatcoat  had  given  him  sufficent  protec- 
tion and  sat  down  to  dinner  without  changing  his 
clothes. 

He  seemed  none  the  worse  for  his  experience  on 
Friday,  and  during  the  afternoon  he  tramped  through 
three  inches  of  snow,  marking  trees  which  were  to  be 
cut  down  to  improve  the  grounds  between  the  house 
and  the  river.  In  the  course  of  the  day  he  wrote  a 
letter  of  instructions  to  his  manager,  the  last  letter  he 
is  known  to  have  written.  And  it  is  interesting  to  this 
chronicle  that  his  last  activities  and  his  last  written 
words  should  have  been  devoted,  even  as  was  his  whole 
life,  to  the  care  of  Mount  Vernon. 

He  spent  the  evening  with  the  family  and  appeared 
to  be  in  a  cheerful  mood,  though  somewhat  hoarse. 
The  papers  had  been  brought  from  the  post-office  and 
he  read  them  aloud  and  commented  on  items  of  peculiar 
interest.  Lear  suggested  a  remedy  for  his  cold  as  the 
General  retired,  but  he  refused  it,  as  he  never  took 
anything  for  a  cold,  and  preferred  to  "let  it  go  as  it 
came."  And  so  upstairs  to  his  bedroom  at  the  south 
end  of  the  house  over  the  library. 


MOUNT  VERNON  223 

Between  two  and  three  o'clock  in  the  morning  (Satur- 
day, December  14th)  he  wakened  Mrs.  Washington 
and  confessed  that  he  was  very  unwell.  He  would 
not  let  her  get  up  to  call  assistance  lest  she  take  cold. 
When  a  servant  appeared,  however,  Doctor  Craik  and 
Doctor  Dick  of  Alexandria  and  Doctor  Brown  of  Port 
Tobacco  were  sent  for,  and  all  arrived  before  four 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon.  They  found  the  General 
suffering  with  a  well-defined  case  of  what  was  then 
called  quinsy.  Their  ministrations  gave  no  relief. 

The  General  several  times  during  the  day  expressed 
his  belief  that  his  end  was  near.  "It  is  a  debt  we  all 
must  pay,"  he  said,  and  faced  the  inevitable  with 
perfect  resignation.  His  wife,  his  old  friend  Doctor 
Craik,  his  faithful  secretary  Lear,  and  the  domestic 
servants  remained  in  the  room  with  him  continuously. 

The  day  dragged  itself  into  darkness.  A  fire  flick- 
ered on  the  hearth  opposite  the  foot  of  his  bed.  Candles 
spread  a  soft  light.  About  ten  o'clock  he  whispered 
some  directions  to  Lear,  and  when  assured  he  was 
understood,  added:  '  'Tis  well."  He  did  not  speak 
again.  Shortly  afterward  it  was  noticed  that  his 
breathing  became  much  easier,  and  presently  he  felt 
his  own  pulse.  In  a  few  minutes,  without  struggle 
or  pain,  he  breathed  his  last. 

Riders  were  dispatched  from  Mount  Vernon  to  the 
north  and  to  the  south,  to  notify  the  President  of  the 
United  States,  other  officials,  relatives  and  friends,  of  the 
death  of  General  Washington. 

The  brick  wall  across  the  opening  of  the  old  vault 
above  the  river  was  torn  away  and  the  interior  made 
ready.  Mrs.  Washington  directed  that  a  wooden  door 


MOUNT  VERNON 

be  built,  for  she  said,  "It  will  soon  be  necessary  to 
open  it  again."  Wednesday,  December  18th,  was  fixed 
for  the  funeral. 

The  ceremonial  was  simple.  His  Masonic  and  mili- 
tary friends  of  Alexandria  and  his  neighbors  and  rel- 
atives of  the  countryside  nearby  were  the  only  ones 
present.  The  casket  rested  in  the  portico.  A  schooner 
in  the  river  fired  minute  guns,  beginning  about  three 
o'clock,  as  the  procession  moved  down  the  slope  toward 
the  tomb. 

The  military  led  the  way,  the  musicians  playing  a  dirge 
with  muffled  drums,  followed  by  the  clergy;  then  the 
General's  horse  with  his  saddle,  holsters,  and  pistols,  led 
by  two  of  his  grooms;  the  body  borne  by  Masonic  and 
military  officers;  the  relatives  and  intimate  friends, 
Masons,  the  Corporation  of  Alexandria,  and  the  people 
of  the  estate. 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Davis,  rector  of  Christ  Church,  Alex- 
andria, read  the  service  and  spoke  briefly.  The  Masons 
then  performed  their  ritual,  after  which  the  body  was 
deposited  in  the  tomb. 

So  with  the  simplicity  he  would  have  preferred,  sur- 
rounded only  by  his  friends  and  his  neighbors,  he  was 
laid  to  rest  where  he  had  lived  with  the  fullest  happiness. 
Mount  Vernon  was  his  home;  it  now  became  the  nation's 
shrine. 


CHAPTER  XVm 

Death  Chamber  Sealed — Washington's  Will — Mount  Vernon 
Bequeathed  to  Bushrod  Washington — Other  Bequests — The 
Inventory — The  Slave  Problem — Martha  Washington's  Last 
Days — Death — Family  Matters — Pictures,  Plate,  Furnish- 
ings, and  Souvenirs  Dispersed — Sale  of  1802 — Bushrod 
Washington  Takes  Possession  of  Mount  Vernon. 

A  PER  the  General's  death  Mrs.  Washington,  fol- 
lowing a  custom  then  prevalent,  closed  his  bed- 
chamber and  moved  into  another.  She  chose 
the  room  at  the  south  end  of  the  third  floor,  directly 
over  the  one  she  had  occupied  with  the  General,  because 
from  its  solitary  dormer  window  she  could  see  her  hus- 
band's tomb.  She  continued  to  occupy  this  room  as 
long  as  she  lived. 

In  the  afternoon  of  his  last  day  the  General  called  his 
wife  to  his  bedside  and  asked  her  to  go  below  to  his 
library  and  from  his  desk  there  bring  his  two  wills.  This 
she  did.  He  examined  them,  declared  one  of  them  to  be 
superseded  by  the  other,  and  requested  her  to  burn  the 
earlier,  which  she  did. 

The  destroyed  will  was  probably  the  one  drawn  for 
Washington  by  his  attorney,  Edmund  Pendleton,  in 
Philadelphia,  when  he  was  commissioned  Commander- 
in-Chief  of  the  Revolutionary  Army.  In  his  letter  to 
Mrs.  Washington,  telling  her  of  the  new  military  career 
he  had  then  entered  upon,  he  said: 

225 


226  MOUNT  VERNON 

"As  life  is  always  uncertain,  and  common  prudence 
dictates  to  every  man  the  necessity  of  settling  his  tem- 
poral concerns,  while  it  is  in  his  power,  and  while  the 
mind  is  calm  and  undisturbed,  I  have,  since  I  came  to 
this  place  (for  I  had  not  time  to  do  it  before  I  left  home) 
got  Colonel  Pendleton  to  draft  a  will  for  me,  by  the  di- 
rections I  gave  him,  which  will  I  now  enclose.  The  pro- 
vision made  for  you  in  case  of  my  death,  will,  I  hope,  be 
agreeable." 

This  was,  in  fact,  probably  the  second  will  Washington 
had  made  at  the  time  he  caused  it  to  be  drawn.  When 
in  the  late  fifties  he  left  for  the  western  campaign  and 
put  John  Augustine  Washington  in  charge  of  his  estate, 
he  told  his  brother  that  if  he  fell  in  the  war  he  would 
leave  Mount  Vernon  to  him.  Washington  was  too 
methodical  and  thorough  a  man  not  to  have  embodied 
such  a  promise  in  a  will,  and  no  doubt  he  made  his  first 
will  at  this  time. 

The  document  which  he  finally  ordered  preserved,  and 
by  which  the  future  proprietorship  of  Mount  Vernon  and 
of  its  furnishings  and  belongings  was  determined,  was  com- 
pleted by  him  July  9,  1799.  The  concluding  paragraph 
discloses  four  points  of  interest:  he  prepared  the  will 
without  legal  advice,  he  provided  for  arbitration  in  case 
of  dispute,  he  omitted  the  final  "  9  "  in  the  dating,  and  he 
signed  it  without  witnesses. 

He  bequeathed  the  whole  of  his  Mount  Vernon  estate, 
real  and  personal,  to  his  wife  "for  the  term  of  her  natural 
life. ' '  He  gave  her  and  her  heirs  * '  forever' '  all  the  house- 
hold furniture  of  every  kind,  except  that  otherwise  dis- 
posed of.  To  his  nephew  Bushrod  Washington,  who  had 


MOUNT  VERNON  227 

risen  to  the  distinction  of  a  seat  on  the  bench  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  he  gave  his  library 
and  all  his  papers  relating  to  his  civil  and  military  ad- 
ministration of  the  affairs  of  the  country.  He  directed 
the  return  of  the  Wallace  Oak  Box  to  the  Earl  of 
Buchan.  The  crab  tree  walking-stick  with  the  gold 
head,  which  Benjamin  Franklin  bequeathed  to  him,  he 
gave  to  his  brother  Charles  Washington.  Two  other 
gold-headed  canes  engraved  with  the  Washington  arms, 
and  two  spyglasses  used  during  the  war,  he  gave  "the 
friends  and  acquaintances  of  my  juvenile  years,  Law- 
rence Washington  and  Robert  Washington  of  Cho- 
tanck,"  to  his  "compatriot  in  arms  and  old  and  intimate 
friend,"  Doctor  Craik,  he  gave  his  writing  desk  and 
chair;  to  Doctor  David  Stuart,  his  telescope  and  large 
shaving  and  dressing  table;  to  Bryan  Fairfax,  a  Bible 
in  three  large  volumes;  to  General  de  LaFayette,  "a  pair 
of  finely  wrought  steel  pistols  taken  from  the  enemy  in 
the  Revolutionary  war";  to  Tobias  Lear,  the  use,  rent 
free,  during  the  remainder  of  his  life,  of  the  farm  where 
he  lived  about  four  miles  east  of  Mount  Vernon 
mansion;  and,  finally,  "To  each  of  my  nephews  William 
Augustine  Washington,  George  Lewis,  George  Step  toe 
Washington,  Bushrod  Washington  and  Samuel  Wash- 
ington, I  give  one  of  the  swords  or  cutteaux  of  which  I 
may  die  possessed,  and  they  are  to  chuse  in  the  order 
they  are  named. — These  swords  are  accompanied  with 
an  injunction  not  to  unsheath  them  for  the  purpose  of 
shedding  blood  except  it  be  for  self-defence,  or  in  de- 
fence of  their  Country  and  it's  rights,  and  in  the  latter 
case  to  keep  them  unsheathed,  and  prefer  falling  with 
them  in  their  hands  to  the  relinquishment  thereof." 


228  MOUNT  VERNON 

A  natural  pendant  to  the  will  of  General  Washington 
and  of  the  most  valued  evidence  in  realizing  the  char- 
acter of  the  furnishings  of  the  mansion  du.ring  his  life- 
time, is  the  inventory  of  his  personal  effects  made  by 
those  charged  with  their  final  appraisement.  If  it 
makes  no  mention  of  some  objects  otherwise  known  to 
have  been  in  the  house,  it  does  place  many  valuable  and 
curious  things  in  the  rooms  where  Washington  and  his 
guests  were  accustomed  to  see  them. 

In  the  large  room  in  the  north  end,  variously  styled 
the  New  Room,  the  New  Dining  Room  and  the  Banquet 
Room — were  twenty-seven  mahogany  chairs,  two  side- 
boards, and  large  looking-glasses,  four  silver-plated 
lamps,  on  each  sideboard,  "an  Image  and  China  flower 
Pot,"  two  "Elegant  Lustres,"  two  candlestands,  and 
two  "Fire  Skreens."  On  the  walls  hung  the  ornately 
framed  engraving  of  Louis  XVI  sent  by  that  monarch 
to  the  General,  "2  large  Gilt  frame  Pictures  represent- 
ing falls  of  Rivers,  4  do.  representing  water  Courses,  1 

do.  Small  'Likeness  of  Gen.  W n,'  4  Small  Prints  (1 

under  each  lamp),  1  Painting  'Moonlight,'  2  Prints 
'Death  of  Montgomery,'  2  do.  'Battles  of  Bunker  Hill/ 
2  do  'Dead  Soldier,'  1  likeness  'Saint  John,  and  1  do 
Virgin  Mary." 

In  the  little  parlor  on  the  east  front  were  a  looking- 
glass,  a  tea  table,  a  settee,  ten  Windsor  chairs,  a  "Like- 
ness of  Gen1.  Washington  in  an  Ovolo  frame,  do. 
LaFayette,  do.  Dr.  Franklin";  prints  representing 
Storms  at  Sea,  the  naval  battle  between  the  Bon 
Homme  Richard  and  the  Ser aphis,  "the  distressed  situa- 
tion of  the  Quebec  &c.,"  the  whale  fishery  at  Davies 
Streights,  another  of  the  Greenland  Streights,  and  nine 


9J     •£ 

s    *:  3 


-,  ;i 

P  "3  -S 

B5  15    # 

^  a    C 


MOUNT  VERNON  229 

gilt  frames  containing  "the  likenesses  of  a  Deer," 
"Painted  likeness  of  an  Alloe,"  "wrought  work  cents, 
chickens  in  a  basket,"  and  six  other  different  paintings. 

In  the  front  or  west  parlor  were  eleven  mahogany 
chairs,  a  tea  table,  a  "Sopha,  1  Elegant  looking-glass," 
three  lamps  and  two  mirrors,  five  china  flower  pots, 
three  portraits  of  the  General,  two  of  Mrs.  Washington, 
other  portraits  of  Mr.  Law,  Mrs.  Lear,  George  Washing- 
ton LaFayette,  Nellie  Custis,  John  and  Martha  Custis  as 
children,  Martha  when  grown,  and  one  of  LaFayette  and 
his  family,  all  in  gilt  frames. 

Apart  from  the  tea  table,  "2  dining  tables,"  a  mahog- 
any sideboard,  an  Ovolo  looking-glass,  "  1  large  case  "  and 
"2  knife  cases,"  and  ten  mahogany  chairs,  the  Dining 
Room  contained  "  1  large  gilt  frame  print  the  death  of 
the  Earl  of  Chatham,  1  do.  Gen1.  Woolfe,  1  do.  Penns 
Treaty  with  Indians,  1  do.  David  Rittenhouse,  1  do  Dr 
Franklin,  1  do  Gen1  Washington,  1  do  Gen'l  Greene,  1 
do  America,  1  do  Gen1.  Fayette  on  Closusion  [Con- 
clusion?] of  the  late  war,  1  do  Gen1.  Wayne,  1  do  the 
Washington  family  of  Mount  Vernon,  1  do  Alfred  visit- 
ing his  noblemen,  and  1  do  do  dividing  his  loaf  with  the 
Pilgrim." 

The  room  opposite  the  East  Parlor  was  furnished  as  a 
bedroom  with  bedstead,  small  table,  looking-glass,  and 
four  mahogany  or  walnut  chairs.  In  a  gilt  frame  on  the 
wall  hung  "a  battle  f  ought  *by  Cavalry." 

There  were  fourteen  mahogany  chairs  in  the  Passage, 
or  Central  Hall,  an  "Image"  over  the  door  into  each  of 
the  four  adjoining  rooms,  a  "Spye  Glass"  through  which 
the  General  and  his  guests  observed  the  life  on  the 
Potomac,  a  thermometer  which  may  have  been  the  one 


230  MOUNT  VERNON 

recommended  by  "Doctor  Priestly  or  Mr.  Madison," 
the  "Key  of  the  Bastille  with  its  Representation,"  and 
prints  of  Diana  deceived  by  Venus,  Dancing  Shepherds, 
Morning,  Evening,  the  River  Po,  Constantine's  Arch, 
and  the  General  himself.  Along  the  wall  of  the  stairway 
ascending  to  the  second  floor  were  other  prints  of 
Musical  Shepherds,  Moonlight,  Thunderstorm,  the 
Battle  of  Bunker  Hill,  and  the  Death  of  Montgomery. 
In  the  upper  passage  a  looking-glass  is  the  sole  object 
enumerated. 

The  details  of  one  bedroom,  the  General's,  will  serve 
for  all:  "Bed,  Bedstead  &  Curtains,"  a  looking-glass 
which  was  the  least  expensive  in  the  house,  dressing 
table,  one  writing  table  and  chair,  an  easy  chair,  two 
other  mahogany  chairs,  the  only  clock  listed  in  the  in- 
ventory, a  chest  of  drawers,  six  paintings  of  the  members 
of  Mrs.  Washington's  family,  five  small  drawings, 
pictures  of  the  Countess  of  Huntington,  General  Knox} 
"A  Parson,"  and  five  other  small  pictures.  In  the 
adjoining  "  closet "  were  one  mahogany  and  two  leather 
trunks  and  a  washbasin  valued  at  fifty  cents. 

There  were  carpets  in  all  the  rooms,  likewise  "Irons, 
Shovel,  Tongs  and  Fender."  In  the  passage  outside 
the  General's  room  there  were  "3  Pictures  nailed  to  the 
Jiouse"  In  the  "Garret"  the  inventory  accounts  for 
"two  furnished  bedrooms  and  the  Lumber  Rooms,"  in 
which  were  furniture,  trunks,  chests,  pictures,  fire 
screens,  a  side  saddle,  books,  a  warming  pan,  "2 
Surveyors  Machines,"  and  "2  sets  Platteaux"  valued 
at  one  hundred  dollars,  probably  the  mirrors  for  the 
state  dining  table. 

Among  the  interesting  objects  in  the  Study  or  Li- 


MOUNT  VERNON  231 

brary  were  the  General's  Tambour  secretary  and  its 
circular  desk  chair,  two  copying  presses,  numerous 
pistols,  "7  Swords  &  1  blade,  4  canes,  7  guns,  11  Spye 
Glasses,  Trumbuls  Prints,  1  Case  Surveyors  In- 
strum18.,  1  Traveling  Ink  Case,  1  Globe,  1  Chest  of 
Tools,  1  Compass  staff,  1  Case  Dentists  lustrum*8.,  2 
Setts  money  weights,  1  Telescope,  1  Box  Paints," 
Houdon's  bust  of  the  General,  a  plaster  profile,  two 
seals  with  ivory  handles,  his  Masonic  emblems,  addi- 
tional surveying  instruments,  some  Indian  presents, 
and  an  iron  chest  containing  securities,  jewelry,  medals, 
and  a  variety  of  other  things,  including  a  portrait  of 
Lawrence  Washington. 

The  inventory  contains  a  list  of  the  books  in  Wash- 
ington's library,  but  it  is  full  of  inaccuracies.  More- 
over, it  does  not  furnish  satisfactory  material  for  a 
study  of  Washington's  taste  in  reading,  for  the  books 
represent  his  selection  only  in  part.  Many  were  gifts, 
and  some  he  subscribed  to  for  various  motives  other 
than  original  interest  in  the  subject  matter.  The  list 
includes  about  eight  hundred  titles.  It  is  interesting  to 
observe  that  the  books  on  all  other  than  agricultural 
topics  were  in  the  cases  behind  glass.  The  books  on  farm- 
ing, however,  were  "on  the  table,"  where  the  General 
could  reach  them  handily.  This  subject  formed  the 
principal  and  almost  the  only  topic  of  his  reading. 

Washington's  letters  to  Lear  disclosed  the  parlor  as 
having  been  furnished  in  blue.  An  investigation*  of  the 
walls  and  woodwork  of  the  passage  and  the  upper 
rooms,  made  in  1897,  revealed  other  interesting  facts 
about  the  interior  color  scheme  of  the  house.  The  side- 

*Report  of  C.  Mellon  Rogers,  Architect,  of  Philadelphia. 


232  MOUNT  VERNON 

wall  panels,  the  ceiling,  and  the  stair-skirting  were  a 
delicate  French  gray,  almost  a  robin-egg  blue.  The 
doors,  trim,  door-heads,  chair  rail,  washboard,  win- 
dows, stair-skirting  bat  tons,  and  cornice  were  painted 
ivory  white  with  a  china  gloss  finish. 

The  wall  of  the  stairway  leading  to  the  second  floor 
was  made  of  "a  buff  or  yellow  mortar,"  in  some  places 
white  coated.  The  walls  of  the  river  bedroom  on  the 
north  side  of  the  upper  hall  were  originally  gray  with 
mantel  and  other  woodwork  in  white,  which  was  also 
the  color  treatment  of  the  bedroom  over  the  family 
dining-room.  The  walls  of  the  General's  bedroom  were 
gray,  the  mantel  was  white,  the  washboard  was  stained 
and  varnished. 

After  the  General's  death  Mrs.  Washington  found 
herself  confronted  with  a  problem  in  the  slaves  on  the 
estate.  They  gave  the  gravest  concern.  Washington 
would  gladly  have  freed  his  slaves,  but  the  situation 
was  complicated  by  their  intermarriage  with  the  dower 
slaves  whom  he  could  not  free.  They  came  to  Mount 
Vernon  by  his  marriage  with  the  widow  of  Daniel 
Parke  Custis,  to  whose  heirs  they  reverted  by  law.  Re- 
garding his  slaves  his  will  said : 

"Upon  the  decease  of  wife  it  is  my  will  and  desire, 
that  all  the  slaves  which  I  hold  in  my  own  right  shall 
receive  their  freedom — To  emancipate  them  during  her 
life,  would  tho  earnestly  wished  by  me,  be  attended  with 
such  insuperable  difficulties,  on  account  of  their  inter- 
mixture by  marriages  with  the  Dower  negroes  as  to 
excite  the  most  painful  sensations, — if  not  disagree- 
able consequences  from  the  latter  while  both  descrip- 


MOUNT  VERNON  233 

tions  are  in  the  occupancy  of  the  same  proprietor,  it 
not  being  in  my  power  under  the  tenure  by  which  the 

dower  Negroes  are  held  to  manumit  them And 

whereas  among  those  who  will  receive  freedom  accord- 
ing to  this  devise  there  may  be  some  who  from  old  age, 
or  bodily  infirmities  &  others  who  on  account  of  their 
infancy,  that  will  be  unable  to  support  themselves,  it  is 
my  will  and  desire  that  all  who  come  under  the  first 
and  second  description  shall  be  comfortably  clothed 
and  fed  by  my  heirs  while  they  live  and  that  such  of  the 
latter  description  as  have  no  parents  living,  or  if  living 
are  unable,  or  unwilling  to  provide  for  them,  shall  be 
bound  by  the  Court  .  .  .  taught  to  read  and  write 
and  to  be  brought  up  to  some  useful  occupation." 

Mrs.  Washington's  grandson,  and  a  member  of  the 
family  at  the  time,  says  in  his  memoirs  that  "the  slaves 
were  left  to  be  emancipated  at  the  death  of  Mrs.  Wash- 
ington; but  it  was  found  necessary  (for  prudential 
reasons)  to  give  them  their  freedom  in  one  year  after 
the  General's  decease."  Some  light  may  be  thrown  on 
this  statement  by  the  remarks  of  Edward  Everett  Hale, 
who  in  his  eightieth  year,  in  1902,  said: 

"I  have  been  assured  by  gentlemen  who  lived  in 
northern  Virginia  that  the  universal  impression  there 
was  that  the  slaves  of  the  Washington  plantation  hur- 
ried Martha  Washington's  death  because  their  own 
liberty  was  secured  by  Washington's  will  after  her 
death.  I  do  not  believe  that  this  bad  statement  can 
be  authenticated,  but  there  is  no  doubt,  I  believe,  that 
Madison  made  a  similar  will  liberating  his  slaves  after 


234  MOUNT  VERNON 

Mrs.  Madison's  death  and  that  he  changed  his  will  on 
account  of  this  rumor  with  regard  to  the  Washington 
slaves." 

Martha  Washington  spent  the  remaining  days  of 
her  life  quietly  at  the  mansion  surrounded  by  her  grand- 
children and  great-grandchildren.  Among  the  latter 
was  a  second  daughter,  christened  Angela,  born  to 
Lawrence  and  Nellie  Lewis  at  Mount  Vernon  in  1801. 
The  days  of  gayety  had  passed.  There  was,  however, 
a  constant  stream  of  visitors  who  came  to  view  the 
scenes  of  Washington's  domestic  life  and  to  lay  their 
homage  at  his  tomb;  among  them  President  Adams 
himself,  who  journeyed  thither  from  Philadelphia. 

When  Mrs.  Washington,  who  sat  at  the  foot  of  her 
husband's  bed,  was  told  that  he  was  no  more,  she  said  in 
a  plain  voice:  "  'Tis  well.  All  is  over  now.  I  have  no 
more  trials  to  pass  through.  I  shall  soon  follow  him." 
These  prophetic  words  were  realized  a  little  more  than 
two  years  later.  In  the  early  days  of  May,  1802,  she 
was  prostrated  by  a  fever.  She  soon  anticipated  her 
end,  took  the  sacrament  from  Mr.  Davis,  "sent  for  a 
white  gown,  which  she  had  previously  laid  by  for  her 
last  dress,"  and  passed  away  on  the  22d  day  of  the 
month.  The  wooden  door  she  had  ordered  for  the  tomb 
now  swung  aside  for  her,  and  she  was  laid  to  rest  by 
the  side  of  the  great  man  whose  partner  she  had  been 
for  forty  years. 

Martha's  death  terminated  her  life  interest  in  Mount 
Vernon.  There  now  came  into  effect  the  clause  in  the 
General's  will  which  bequeathed  the  main  tract  of 
more  than  four  thousand  acres  between  Dogue  Creek 


MOUNT  VERNON  235 

and  Little  Hunting  Creek,  "together  with  the  Mansion 
House  and  all  other  buildings  and  improvements 
thereon,"  to  his  nephew,  Bushrod  Washington,  son  of 
John  Augustine  Washington,  "partly  in  consideration 
of  an  intimation  to  his  deceased  father,  while  we  were 
bachelors  and  he  had  kindly  undertaken  to  superintend 
my  estate,  during  my  military  services  in  the  former 
war  between  Great  Britain  and  France,  that  if  I  should 
fall  therein,  Mount  Vernon  .  .  .  should  become 
his  property." 

The  River  Farm,  that  tract  of  two  thousand  and 
twenty-seven  acres  lying  east  of  Little  Hunting  Creek, 
Washington  bequeathed  to  the  two  sons  of  George 
Augustine  Washington.  The  land  included  the  farm 
of  three  hundred  and  sixty  acres  the  use  of  which  the 
General  gave  Tobias  Lear  for  the  latter's  lifetime.  To 
Lawrence  Lewis  he  gave  two  thousand  acres  on  the 
northwest  side  of  the  estate. 

There  is  a  tradition  that  this  disposition  of  Mount 
Vernon  was  a  disappointment  to  Mrs.  Washington, 
Nellie  Custis,  and  her  husband,  Lawrence  Lewis. 
Nellie  had  more  than  once  indicated  to  him,  the  General 
said,  that  she  and  her  husband  would  like  "to  settle 
in  this  neighborhood."  Accordingly  he  wrote  the 
newly  married  Lawrence  that  the  two  thousand  acres 
off  the  northwest  portion  of  his  estate  would  become 
his  under  the  will.  It  may  be  tradition  errs  in  ascrib- 
ing disappointment  to  Mrs.  Washington  and  her  grand- 
daughter at  the  bequest  of  the  Mount  Vernon  mansion. 
It  may  be  that  there  was  normal  harmony  between 
the  General's  relatives  and  his  wife's  relatives,  but  in 
the  light  of  this  tradition  an  apparent  significance 


236  MOUNT  VERNON 

attaches  to  the  noticeable  infrequency  of  the  visits  of 
Washington's  next  of  kin  to  Mount  Vernon,  except  on 
business,  during  Mrs.  Washington's  lifetime,  and  to 
the  fact  that  not  a  single  blood  relative  of  Washington 
stood  at  his  tomb  when  he  was  placed  within. 

By  Lear's  own  account  Mr.  Law,  Mr.  Peter,  and  Dr. 
Stuart  were  notified  by  courier  the  evening  the  General 
died.  Next  day  Lear  enclosed  notices  to  Judge  Bush- 
rod  Washington  and  Colonel  William  Washington, 
under  cover  to  Colonel  Blackburn,  "desiring  him  to 
forward  them  by  express."  A  slave,  Caesar,  was  dis- 
patched to  New  Kent  to  notify  G.  W.  P.  Custis  and 
Lawrence  Lewis.  A  letter  was  sent  to  the  post-office 
to  John  Lewis,  "desiring  him  to  give  information  to  his 
brothers  George,  Robert  &  Howell,  &  to  Capt.  Sam'l 
Washington."  No  other  relatives  were  notified.  The 
information  sent  in  this  way  could  not  have  found  any 
of  these  except  the  first  three  in  time  for  them  to  reach 
Mount  Vernon  for  the  funeral,  which  was  fixed  for  the 
fourth  day  after  the  General's  death. 

Judge  Bushrod  Washington  came  to  Mrs.  WTash- 
ington's  funeral,  but  tradition  says  that  Lawrence  and 
Nellie  Lewis  did  not  invite  him  to  remain  for  refresh- 
ment, and  before  leaving  his  estate  he  asked  a  slave  to 
prepare  dinner  for  him,  which  he  ate  in  a  cabin.  It 
has  long  been  said  in  the  neighborhood  that  when 
Lawrence  Lewis  settled  at  Woodlawn,  the  mansion  he 
built  on  the  tract  his  uncle  bequeathed  him,  the  re- 
lations between  that  house  and  Mount  Vernon  were 
visibly  strained. 

The  General,  by  his  will,  gave  his  widow  a  life  interest 
in  Mount  Vernon  and  in  everything  that  pertained  to 


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MOUNT  VERNON  237 

it.  The  only  bequest  that  he  made  to  "her  and  her 
heirs  forever"  was  that  of  "the  household  and  kitchen 
furniture  of  every  sort  and  kind  with  the  liquors  and 
groceries  which  may  be  on  hand  at  the  time  of  my  de- 
cease, to  be  used  and  disposed  of  as  she  may  think 
proper."  Mrs.  Washington,  during  her  widowhood, 
made  frequent  gifts  to  her  relatives  of  objects  from 
the  mansion. 

By  her  will  she  gave  to  her  grandson,  G.  W.  P. 
Custis,  "all  the  silver  plate  of  every  kind,  .  .  .  to- 
gether with  the  two  large  plated  coolers,  the  four  small 
plated  coolers  with  the  bottle  castors,  a  pipe  of  wine  if 
there  be  one  in  the  house  at  the  time  of  my  death — also 
the  set  of  Cincinnati  tea  and  table  china,  the  bowl  that 
has  a  ship  in  it,  the  fine  old  china  jars  which  usually 
stand  on  the'chimney  piece  in  the  new  room :  also  all  the 
family  pictures  of  every  sort  and  the  pictures  painted  by 
his  sister,  and  two  small  skreens  worked  by  his  sister  and 
the  other  a  present  from  Miss  Kitty  Brown — also  his 

choice  of  prints — also  the  two  girandoles  and 

lustres  that  stand  on  them — also  the  new  bedstead  which 
I  caused  to  be  made  in  Philadelphia  together  with  the 
bed,  matrass  bolsters  and  pillows  and  the  white  dimity 
curtains  belonging  thereto:  also  two  other  beds  with 
bolsters  and  pillows  and  the  white  dimity  window  cur- 
tains in  the  new  room — also  the  iron  chest  and  the  desk 
in  my  closet  which  belonged  to  my  first  husband ;  also  all 
my  books  of  every  kind  except  the  large  bible  and  prayer 
book,  also  the  set  of  tea  china  that  was  given  me  by  Mr. 
Van  Braam  every  piece  having  M  W  on  it." 

To  Nellie  Custis  Lewis  she  gave  "the  large  looking 
glass  in  the  front  Parlour  and  any  other  looking  glass 


238  MOUNT  VERNON 

which  she  may  choose — Also  one  of  the  new  side  board 
tables  in  the  new  room — also  twelve  chairs  with  green 
bottoms  to  be  selected  by  herself  also  the  marble  table  in 
the  garret,  also  the  two  prints  of  the  dead  soldier,  a  print 
of  the  Washington  family  in  a  box  in  the  Garret  and  the 
great  chair  standing  in  my  chamber;  also  all  the  plated 
ware  not  herein  otherwise  bequeathed — "  and  many  other 
domestic  articles. 

To  her  two  other  grandchildren  she  gave, — "my 
writing  table  and  the  seat  to  it  standing  in  my  chamber, 
also  the  print  of  Gen1.  Washington  that  hangs  in  the 
passage"  to  Mrs.  Peter, — "the  dressing  table  and  glass 
that  stands  in  the  chamber  called  the  yellow  room,  and 
Gen1.  Washington's  picture  painted  by  Trurnbull"  to 
Mrs.  Law.  "All  the  wine  in  bottles  in  the  vaults"  was 
ordered  "equally  divided  between"  her  granddaughters 
and  her  grandson. 

Everything  else  in  the  mansion  not  specified  in  her 
will  was  ordered  to  be  sold  by  the  executors  "for  ready 
money"  for  the  education  of  three  of  her  nephews. 
This  sale  took  place  July  20,  1802.  Relatives  of  Gen- 
eral Washington  were  extensive  purchasers,  and  it  was 
in  this  way  that  they  obtained  such  relics  of  Mount 
Vernon  as  they  afterward  possessed. 

When  Bushrod  Washington  moved  into  the  mansion 
he  found  it  dismantled  of  all  its  objects  which  he  did  not 
buy  in  at  the  sale.  No,  there  was  one  object  which  es- 
caped bequest  as  well  as  sale.  It  had  excited  no  one's 
interest.  By  some  irony  of  fate  this  object  was  the  sole 
and  only  portrait  of  the  man  who,  in  the  uncertainty 
which  surrounds  the  fact,  is  generally  believed  to  have 
built  Mount  Vernon  house,  who  bequeathed  it  to  his 


MOUNT  VERNON  239 

much-loved  young  brother  George,  and  was  thereby  the 
indirect  instrument  of  its  great  fame.  It  is  not  a  great 
work  of  art,  but  it  has  found  appreciation  since,  and  is 
now  treasured  by  another  Lawrence  Washington,  great- 
great-grandnephew  of  this  one. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

Career  of  Bushrod  Washington — Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States — Estimates  by  Contemporaries — Mount 
Vernon  and  the  English  Fleet  in  1814 — Battle  off  Belvoir 
—Rev.  Charles  O'Neill— Return  of  LaFayette— Death  of 
Justice  Washington — The  Two  John  Augustine  Washingtons 
— New  Tomb — Reentombment  of  the  General  and  Mrs. 
Washington — Other  Burials — The  Key  Thrown  into  the 
Potomac. 

BUSHROD  WASHINGTON,  third  Washington 
to  own  and  to  live  in  Mount  Vernon  Mansion, 
was  the  second  child  of  John  Augustine  Wash- 
ington, who   was   a   second   younger   brother   of   the 
General.     He  was  born  in  Westmoreland  County,  Vir- 
ginia, June  5,  1762. 

He  graduated  from  the  College  of  William  and  Mary 
in  1778,  later  joined  the  army,  and  was  a  private  soldier 
under  Mercer  at  Yorktown.  In  his  twenty-second  year 
he  accompanied  the  General  on  his  tour  of  western 
Pennsylvania,  when  they  rode  six  hundred  and  eighty 
miles  in  thirty -four  days,  and  he  afterward  received  sub- 
stantial evidence  that  he  was  his  Uncle  George's  favorite 
nephew.  Bushrod  chose  the  law  as  his  profession  and 
by  the  influence  of  his  uncle  he  was  admitted  to  study  in 
the  office  of  James  Wilson  of  Philadelphia,  later  one  of 
the  Justices  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States. 
He  began  to  practise  in  his  native  Westmoreland,  which 
he  represented  in  the  Virginia  Assembly  and  also  in  the 
Virginia  Convention  which  ratified  the  Constitution. 

Mi 


MOUNT  VERNON  241 

Bushrod  married  Anne,  daughter  of  Colonel  Thomas 
Blackburn  of  Rippon  Lodge,  Prince  William  County, 
about  twelve  miles  from  Mount  Vernon.  There  was  no 
issue.  As  his  country  practice  did  not  thrive,  he  moved  to 
Alexandria;  perhaps  also  to  be  nearer  the  Mount  Vernon 
influence.  Indeed  he  wrote  the  General  asking  to  be 
appointed  an  attorney  in  the  Federal  Court,  but  learned 
that  "nepotism  was  not  one  of  his  uncle's  redeeming 
vices."  He  next  established  himself  in  Richmond  and 
almost  immediately  became  one  of  the  leading  members 
of  the  Virginia  bar.  His  wife  was  an  invalid,  however, 
and  he  led  a  retired  life,  devoting  his  leisure  to  editing 
the  Reports  of  the  Virginia  Court  of  Appeals  between 
1790  and  1796. 

When  Justice  Wilson  died  President  Adams  reduced 
his  choice  of  a  successor  to  John  Marshall  and  Bushrod 
Washington.  "Marshall  is  first  in  age,  rank  and  public 
service,  probably  not  second  in  talents,"  the  President 
wrote  Mr.  Pickering,  his  Secretary  of  State.  "The 
character,  the  merits  and  abilities  of  Mr.  Washington 
are  greatly  respected,  but  I  think  General  Marshall 
ought  to  be  preferred;  of  the  three  envoys  [to  France] 
the  conduct  of  Marshall  alone  has  been  entirely  satis- 
factory, and  ought  to  be  marked  by  the  most  decided 
approbation  of  the  public.  He  has  raised  the  American 
people  in  their  own  esteem,  and  if  the  influence  of  truth 
and  justice,  reason  and  argument  is  not  lost  in  Europe, 
he  had  raised  the  consideration  of  the  United  States  in 
that  quarter  of  the  world.  If  Mr.  Marshall  should  de- 
cline, I  should  next  think  of  Mr.  Washington."  Mar- 
shall did  decline,  and  Bushrod  Washington  became  an 
Associate  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court,  December  20, 


242  MOUNT  VERNON 

1798,  in  his  thirty-sixth  year,  succeeding  his  own  learned 
preceptor. 

Justice  Washington  is  described  as  a  small  man,  with 
an  emaciated  frame  and  a  countenance  like  marble. 
Though  his  fame  was  overshadowed  by  his  illustrious 
uncle,  he  was  undoubtedly  a  man  of  parts.  He 
specialized  in  commercial  and  Nisi  Prius  law,  and  Jus- 
tice Binney  said  of  him  that  he  was  "as  accomplished  a 
Nisi  Prius  judge  as  ever  lived.  I  cannot  conceive  a 
better.  ...  I  do  not  believe  that  even  he  [Lord 
Mansfield]  surpassed  him."  Judge  Hopkinson  and 
David  ~Paul  Brown  made  equal  estimates  of  his  abil- 
ities. 

Justice  Story  reviewing  the  partiality  shown  Bush- 
rod  Washington  by  his  uncle  in  bequeathing  him  Mount 
Vernon,  his  private  and  public  letters  and  papers  and 
his  library,  and  in  making  him  executor  of  his  will, 
said:  "Such  marks  of  respect  from  such  a  man, — the 
wonder  of  his  own  age,  and  the  model  of  all  future  ages, — 
would  alone  stamp  a  character  of  high  merit,  and  solid 
distinction,  upon  any  person.  They  would  constitute 
a  passport  to  public  favour,  and  confer  an  enviable  rank, 
far  beyond  the  records  of  the  herald's  office,  or  the 
fugitive  honors  of  a  title.  .  .  .  He  was  as  worthy 
an  heir  as  ever  claimed  kindred  with  a  worthy  ances- 
tor. .  .  .  Few  men  indeed  have  possessed  higher 
qualifications  for  the  office,  either  natural  or  acquired. 
.  .  .  His  mind  was  solid,  rather  than  brilliant; 
sagacious  and  searching,  rather  than  quick  or  eager; 
steady,  but  not  unyielding;  comprehensive,  and  at  the 
same  time  cautious;  patient  hi  inquiry,  forcible  in  con- 
ception, clear  in  reasoning.  He  was,  by  original  tern- 


MOUNT  VERNON  243 

perament,  mild,  conciliating,  and  candid;  and  yet  he 
was  remarkable  for  his  uncompromising  firmness." 

He  was  a  man  of  few  activities  apart  from  his  atten- 
tion to  his  duties  on  the  Supreme  Bench.  He  was,  how- 
ever, the  first  President  of  the  American  Colonization 
Society,  which  sought  to  transfer  negroes  from  the 
United  States  to  colonize  the  little  Republic  of  Liberia, 
and  in  his  later  years  he  edited  the  Reports  of  the 
United  States  Circuit  Court  of  the  Third  District,  1803 
to  1827. 

Justice  Washington'senf  orced  presence  in  Philadelphia, 
during  many  of  the  years  of  his  ownership  of  Mount 
Vernon,  afforded  him  brief  intervals  to  retire  to  his  estate. 
Whenever  he  was  there  he  dispensed  a  modest  and 
graceful  hospitality  to  the  great  number  of  visitors  who 
came  to  view  the  home  and  tomb  of  his  uncle.  Among  the 
happy  incidents  of  his  occupancy  of  the  mansion  were 
the  occasional  dinners  which  he  and  his  wife  gave  to 
the  Chief  Justice  and  his  Associate  Justices  of  the 
Supreme  Court. 

Apprehension  for  Mount  Vernon  again  seized  the 
people  during  the  second  war  with  Great  Britain, 
when,  on  August  24,  1814,  the  British  fleet  sailed  up  the 
Potomac.  Instead  of  attacking  and  destroying  Mount 
Vernon,  as  anticipated,  it  is  said  Captain  Gordon  of  the 
Royal  Navy  caused  the  seven  vessels  of  his  fleet  to  fire 
salutes  as  they  came  abreast.  Almost  immediately 
thereafter,  and  in  sight  of  the  mansion,  Fort  Washington, 
on  the  site  of  Mr.  Digges*  Warburton  Manor  lands, 
surrendered  without  a  shot  to  the  astonished  Eng- 
lish. 

When  the  enemy  returned  from  the  plunder  of  Alex- 


244  MOUNT  VERNON 

andria,  however,  they  bore  away  a  different  tale  of 
Mount  Vernon  neighborhood.  Two  batteries  under 
Commodore  David  Porter  and  Commodore  Oliver  H. 
Perry  engaged  the  retreating  ships  from  the  Virginia 
shore,  following  their  passage  down  river.  They 
crossed  the  western  end  of  Mount  Vernon  estate  and 
took  up  a  position  on  Belvoir  heights.  As  the  English 
ships  passed  there  was  a  spirited  engagement.  But 
this  naval  battle  fought  in  sight  of  Mount  Vernon  was 
overwhelmingly  onesided.  The  land  batteries  were  of 
small  calibre  and  the  guns  were  outnumbered  many 
times  over  by  those  on  the  ships. 

Of  a  more  peaceful  nature  were  the  visits  to  Mount 
Vernon  of  the  Rev.  Charles  O'Neill,  rector  of  rejuve- 
nated Pohick  Church,  recounted  by  Bishop  Meade,  then 
rector  of  Christ  Church,  Alexandria,  where  Justice 
and  Mrs.  Washington  worshipped:  "The  families  at 
Mount  Vernon  and  Rippon  Lodge  were  fond  of  him. 
He  always  spent  his  Christmas  at  Mount  Vernon,  and 
on  these  occasions  was  dressed  in  a  full  suit  of  velvet, 
which  General  Washington  left  behind,  and  which 
had  been  given  to  Mr.  O'Neill.  But  as  General  Wash- 
ington was  tall  and  well  proportioned  in  all  his  parts, 
and  Mr.  O'Neill  was  peculiarly  formed,  being  of  un- 
common length  of  body  and  brevity  of  legs,  it  was 
difficult  to  make  the  clothes  of  one  even  though  altered 
sit  well  upon  the  other." 

General  the  Marquis  de  LaFayette,  accompanied  by 
his  son,  George  Washington  LaFayette,  crossed  the 
Atlantic  once  more,  in  1824,  for  a  tour  of  America  as 
the  nation's  guest,  and  he  came  again  to  Mount  Vernon 
to  refresh  his  souvenirs  and  lay  his  homage  at  the  tomb 


MOUNT  VERNON  245 

of  his  chief  and  friend.  It  was  a  pilgrimage  of  much 
state  though  of  simple  ceremonial. 

Bushrod  Washington  possessed  Mount  Vernon  for 
twenty-seven  years.  The  only  impress  of  his  owner- 
ship which  survives  on  the  mansion  is  the  porch  which 
he  built  on  the  southwest  end  outside  the  library  win- 
dows. In  erecting  this  porch  he  tore  away  the  shelter 
over  the  steps  descending  into  the  cellar,  similar  to  the 
shelter  which  survives  at  the  northeast  cellar  door. 

Justice  Washington's  health  began  to  fail  in  the 
autumn  of  1829,  and  he  died  while  attending  court  in 
Philadelphia,  November  26th,  of  that  year.  His  wife 
died  a  few  days  later,  of  grief  it  is  said.  They  were 
buried  side  by  side  in  the  family  vault  at  Mount  Vernon. 

In  his  will  Justice  Washington  divided  that  portion 
of  the  original  estate  which  he  had  inherited  from  his 
uncle,  the  General,  among  his  own  nephews  and  a  niece, 
Mary  Lee  Washington,  daughter  of  his  brother  Corbin, 
who  was  married  to  Noblet  Herbert  in  the  mansion  in 
1819,  and  is  buried  within  the  vault.  The  mansion  and 
a  large  tract  surrounding,  including  the  river  front,  he  be- 
queathed to  John  Augustine  Washington,  third  child  of 
his  brother  Corbin. 

This  John  Augustine  Washington  was  born  at  Walnut 
Farm,  in  Westmoreland  County,  Virginia,  about  1792. 
He  married  Jane  Charlotte,  daughter  of  Major  Richard 
Scott  Blackburn,  of  the  United  States  Army,  in  1814, 
and  they  lived  at  Blakeley,  in  Jefferson  County,  then 
Virginia,  now  West  Virginia.  There  five  children  were 
born  to  them,  of  whom  two  died  in  infancy.  On  the 
death  of  his  Uncle  Bushrod,  John  Augustine  moved  with 
his  family  to  Mount  Vernon  and  proposed  to  make  the 


246  MOUNT  VERNON 

cultiration  and  improvement  of  the  estate  his  chief 
business  in  life.  He  died  in  1832,  however,  and  was 
buried  in  the  vault,  after  only  a  little  more  than  two 
years'  ownership  of  the  estate,  which  he  bequeathed 
to  his  widow. 

Jane  Washington  seems  to  have  been  a  woman  of 
character  and  resources.  With  such  aid  as  she  could 
command  she  kept  her  young  family  about  her — her 
eldest  son  was  only  eleven  years  old — and  applied  her- 
self to  carry  on  her  husband's  work.  What  a  burden 
it  must  have  been  to  her  can  be  little  realized  by  those 
who  have  not  staggered  under  the  tax,  in  time  and 
entertainment,  of  the  proprietorship  of  one  of  the  most- 
frequented  patriotic  shrines  in  the  world. 

John  Augustine,  Jane's  eldest  boy,  was  his  mother's 
main  dependence,  and  within  a  few  years  he  is  found 
shouldering  responsibilities  in  the  management  of  the 
place.  Soon  after  Bushrod  Washington's  death  the  green- 
house next  the  flower  gardens  burned,  which  explains  an 
allusion  in  a  letter  of  November  10,  1837,  to  John  Au- 
gustine from  his  mother:  "The  portico  and  pavement 
round  the  House  at  Mount  Vernon  should  be  immedi- 
ately laid — many  of  the  flagstones  are  broken  and  much 
defaced — there  are  more  than  eno'  to  replace  them  in  the 
Burnt  Hot  house,  the  rubbish  must  be  removed  &  have 
them  carefully  taken  up." 

Jane  Washington  lived  at  Mount  Vernon  until  1843. 
In  February  of  that  year  John  Augustine  was  married 
to  Eleanor  Love  Selden  of  Exeter,  Loudoun  County, 
Virginia.  His  mother  then  retired  to  her  other  estate, 
Blakeley,  in  Jefferson  County.  She  transferred  Mount 
Vernon  Mansion  and  about  twelve  hundred  acres  of 


JANE  WASHINGTON  AND  MEMBERS  OF  HER  FAMILY 

From  left  to  right:  her  daughter  Anna  Maria  Washington;  her  son,  Richard  Black- 
burn Washington;  her  husband's  nephew,  Xoblet  Herbert;  and  her  son  John 
Augustine  Washington,  last  private  owner  of  Mount  Vernon.    From  a  paint- 
ing by  John  Gadsby  Chapman  in  the  possession  of  Lawrence  Washington 


MOUNT  VERNON  247 

surrounding  land  to  him  by  deed  of  gift  in  1850,  which 
gift  she  confirmed  in  her  will. 

To  this  John  Augustine,  last  Washington  to  own 
Mount  Vernon,  and  Eleanor  his  wife,  were  born  seven 
children:  Louisa  Fontaine,  19  February,  1844;  Jane 
Charlotte,  26  May,  1846;  Eliza  Selden,  17  July,  1848; 
Anna  Maria,  17  November,  1851;  Lawrence,  14  Janu- 
ary, 1854;  Eleanor  Love,  14  March,  1856;  and  George, 
22  July,  1858.  All  were  born  in  Mount  Vernon  Man- 
sion except  Eliza,  and  they  were  the  last  children  born 
there. 

The  years  of  Jane  Washington's  residence  at  Mount 
Vernon  made  little  history  for  the  estate  apart  from 
the  notable  events  of  1831  and  1837,  the  years  which 
saw  the  realization  of  the  General's  wish  expressed  in 
this  item  of  his  will : 

"The  family  Vault  at  Mount  Vernon  requiring  re- 
pairs, and  being  improperly  situated  besides,  I  desire 
that  a  new  one  of  Brick,  and  upon  a  larger  scale,  may 
be  built  at  the  foot  of  what  is  commonly  called  the 
vineyard  enclosure, — on  the  ground  which  is  marked 
out. — In  which  my  remains,  with  those  of  my  deceased 
relatives  (now  in  the  Old  Vault)  and  such  others  of 
my  family  as  may  chuse  to  be  entombed  there,  may  be 
deposited." 

In  the  thirty-odd  years  since  his  death,  the  proposal 
to  move  his  remains  from  Mount  Vernon  to  Wash- 
ington City  was  twice  agitated.  During  Martha  Wash- 
ington's widowhood  President  Adams  requested  that 
her  husband's  ashes  might  be  brought  to  the  national 
Capital.  She  consented,  but  the  project  was  not  pur- 
sued. Again  in  1832,  when  the  nation  celebrated  the 


248  MOUNT  VERNON 

centennial  of  Washington's  birth,  Congress  renewed 
the  request  to  the  Washington  family  and  a  platform 
was  prepared  for  his  sarcophagus  in  the  crypt  under- 
neath the  centre  of  the  dome  of  the  Capitol  of  the 
United  States.  But  it  remains  untenanted  to-day, 
and  the  General  reposes  in  the  quiet  of  his  beloved 
Mount  Vernon,  as  his  relatives  refused  to  give  a  per- 
mission contrary  to  the  desire  expressed  in  his  will. 

It  was  a  vandal's  effort,  happily  futile,  to  steal  the 
body  of  Washington  from  the  old  tomb,  which  stirred 
Lawrence  Lewis  and  G.  W.  P.  Custis,  surviving  exec- 
utors under  the  General's  will,  to  fulfil  his  desire. 
This  was  about  1830.  Already  the  damp  condition 
of  the  old  tomb,  smothered  under  the  dense  foliage  of 
trees  which  grew  above  it  and  shot  their  destructive 
roots  through  its  roof  and  walls,  had  three  times  de- 
stroyed the  wooden  casings  of  the  General's  leaden 
casket.  In  1831  the  new  tomb  was  completed  and 
into  it  all  the  remains  of  the  deceased  members  of  the 
Washington  family  in  the  old  vault  were  at  once  moved. 

When,  the  next  year,  the  proposal  to  remove  Wash- 
ington and  his  wife  to  the  United  States  Capitol  was 
agitated,  John  Struthers,  of  Philadelphia,  asked  and 
received  permission  to  present  sarcophagi  for  their 
bodies,  which  he  proceeded  to  chisel  from  solid  blocks 
of  marble.  When  the  effort  was  finally  abandoned  and 
it  became  certain  that  Washington's  wish  to  remain 
at  Mount  Vernon  would  be  respected,  Mr.  Struthers 
presented  the  sarcophagi  to  the  Washington  family  for 
use  in  the  family  vault. 

Attention  was  called  to  the  fact  that  the  marble 
would  discolor  and  perhaps  decay  in  the  damp  and 


MOUNT  VERNON  249 

darkness  behind  the  iron  door  of  the  vault.  It  was 
then  decided  to  build  the  vestibule  that  the  marble 
caskets  might  have  air  and  light.  This  was  completed 
in  1837,  when  the  remains  of  George  and  Martha  Wash- 
ington were  sealed  in  the  marble  sarcophagi  in  the 
places  where  they  have  since  rested  in  the  open  vestibule 
before  the  vault. 

On  this  occasion  a  delegation  headed  by  Henry  Clay 
drove  to  Mount  Vernon  from  the  Capital  and  joined 
Lawrence  Lewis,  his  son  Lorenzo  Lewis,  John  Augustine 
Washington,  his  mother  Jane  Washington,  the  Rev- 
erend Mr.  Johnson  and  his  wife,  and  others  in  the 
informal  but  solemn  ceremonial  of  reentombment. 

A  circumstantial  story  has  been  published  that  the 
leaden  casket  was  opened,  that  Washington's  face  was 
looked  upon  by  those  present,  and  that  his  features 
were  little  changed.  "I  believe  this  to  be  untrue," 
said  Mr.  Lawrence  Washington  to  the  writer.  "The 
late  Mr.  Richard  B.  Washington  told  me  that  the 
leaden  casket  was  not  opened.  He  was  present  and 
about  fifteen  years  old.  He  said  there  was  a  small 
circular  hole  immediately  over  the  face,  through  which 
several  persons  attempted  to  look  on  Washington's 
face,  and  some  of  them  claimed  that  they  saw  it,  but 
that  he  on  attempting  to  look  through  the  hole  could 
see  nothing.  I  am  aware  that  Strickland's  account  is 
very  circumstantial,  but  my  uncle  did  not  hesitate  to 
denounce  it  as  false." 

The  marble  receptacles  are  severely  plain.  That  of 
Washington  has  on  its  upper  surface  a  sculptured 
device  in  high  relief  representing  the  eagle  above  the 
American  shield  against  a  drapery  of  the  Flag  of  the 


250  MOUNT  VERNON 

Union.  Beneath  this  is  the  single  word  "  Washington." 
Martha's  has  carved  on  its  upper  surface  the  words, 
"Martha,  Consort  of  Washington,"  and,  on  the  up- 
right surface  at  the  end,  "Died  May  21,  1801,  aged 
71  years."  This  is  obviously  erroneous.  Martha 
Washington  died  the  22d  day  of  May,  in  the  year  1802.* 
After  the  entombment  in  1837  there  were  seven  other 
burials  at  Mount  Vernon — four  within  the  vault  and 
three  in  the  ground  on  the  southeast  side.  The  first  of 
these  was  Lawrence  Lewis .  After  Martha  Washington's 
death,  Lawrence  and  Nellie  built  Woodlawn  Mansion, 
three  miles  northwest  of  Mount  Vernon  house,  on  the  su- 
perb site  which  the  General  bequeathed  his  nephew.  It  is 
one  of  the  stateliest  houses  in  Virginia,  built  of  brick 
throughout,  in  the  Georgian  style,  and  its  pillared 
portico  overlooks  the  Potomac  down  the  length  of 
Dogue  Creek,  all  of  the  original  acres  of  Mount  Vernon, 
and  a  long  stretch  of  lovely  valley  to  the  north.  The 
Lewises  continued  to  live  at  Woodlawn  until  the  early 
thirties,  when  they  moved  to  Audley,  another  estate  of 
theirs  in  Clarke  County,  near  the  Shenandoah.  Law- 
rence died  November  20,  1839,  and  is  buried  in  the 
vault  at  Mount  Vernon.  Their  daughter  Angela,  Mrs. 
Conrad,  died  at  Pass  Christian,  Mississippi,  in  1839, 
according  to  the  shaft  above  her  grave,  and  John 
Augustine  Washington's  diary  says  that  on  July  10, 
1843,  her  body  "and  that  of  her  child  were  buried  near 
the  new  vault."  Mrs.  Lewis  survived  her  husband 
thirteen  years.  She  died  at  Audley,  July  15,  1852,  and 
was  brought  to  Mount  Vernon  and  buried  near  her 

*  Since  the  text  above  was  written  the  date  on  Martha  Washington's  sarcopha- 
gus has  been  corrected. 


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MOUNT  VERNON  251 

daughter  and  granddaughter  at  the  side  of  the 
vault.  Her  brother,  G.  W.  P.  Custis,  died  October  10, 
1857,  and  is  buried  at  Arlington.  Of  two  of  the  others  to 
be  admitted  to  the  vault  at  Mount  Vernon  one  was 
Mary  Lee  Washington  Herbert,  who  died  in  1852.  Mr. 
Washington's  diary  records  the  other  burial  there  on 
April  16,  1842:  "Reverend  Mr.  Johnson  had  the  body 
of  his  child  placed  in  the  vault."  The  father  of  this 
child  was  the  Rev.  W.  P.  C.  Johnson,  who  married  a 
Miss  Washington  of  Mount  Zephyr. 

Jane,  mother  of  the  last  Washington  to  own  Mount 
Vernon,  passed  away  at  Blakeley,  her  home  in  Jefferson 
County,  in  the  year  1855.  She  was  brought  to  Mount 
Vernon  and  placed  near  her  husband  in  the  vault. 

On  that  occasion  John  Augustine  Washington  entered 
in  his  diary,  under  date  of  September  10,  1855,  these  in- 
valuable memoranda  (see  next  page)  of  the  positions  of  the 
persons  buried  in  the  vault,  omitting  unfortunately  to  in- 
dicate the  bodies  marked  C,  D,  E,  and  F  in  his  diagram, 
though  sequence  would  seem  to  determine  them: 

"We  buried  my  mother  in  the  vault  at  Mount  Vernon 
— as  she  desired,  at  my  father's  feet.  The  bodies  buried 
there  lie  as  follows.  The  first  body  inside  the  door  of  the 
inner  vault  is  Major  Lawrence  Lewis  (marked  A.  in  the 
subjoined  diagram).  The  second  B.  is  my  mother. 
Then  at  right  angles  to  these  with  their  feet  to  them  are 
Judge  Bushrod  Washington  marked  [blank].  His  wife 
Ann  Washington  My  father  John  Augustine  Washington 
marked  [blank]  and  his  sister  Mary  Lee  Herbert  marked 
[blank]" 

A  tradition  has  lingered  about  Mount  Vernon  that, 


252 


MOUNT  VERNON 


*~~ 


Extract  from  the  Diary  of  John  Augustine  Waihington,  last  privat*  owner  of 
Mount  Vernon.  under  dat«  of  September  10, 


MOUNT  VERNON  253 

after  the  burial  of  Mrs.  Jane  Washington,  the  tomb  was 
locked,  the  keyhole  sealed  with  the  little  metal  plate 
which  obscures  it  to-day,  and  the  key  was  thrown  into 
the  Potomac.  There  seems  to  be  no  written  history  to 
corroborate  this.  However,  oral  confirmation  is  fur- 
nished by  Thomas  W.  Buckey,  a  connection  by  marriage 
with  John  Augustine  Washington's  brother  Richard, 
from  whom  he  had  these  facts. 

One  evening  shortly  after  the  burial  of  Jane  Washing- 
ton a  number  of  the  Washington  family  were  gathered  in 
Mount  Vernon  Mansion,  and  talk  turned  on  the  crowded 
condition  of  the  family  vault.  The  discussion  of  what 
other  members  of  the  family  should  enjoy  the  dis- 
tinction of  burial  in  the  historic  tomb  disclosed  so 
many  claims  that  it  was  decided  then  and  there  that  no 
one  else  should  be  buried  therein,  and  to  prevent  it  to 
throw  the  key  into  the  river.  To  avoid  responsibility 
for  this  radical  act  it  was  decided  to  draw  lots.  The 
obligation  fell  to  Richard  Washington,  who  at  once  took 
the  key,  went  down  the  hill  in  the  darkness,  and  with  all 
his  strength  hurled  the  key  far  out  into  the  Potomac. 

When  this  was  repeated  to  Lawrence  Washington, 
nephew  of  Richard  Washington,  he  told  the  writer  he 
had  never  heard  it  before,  but  added:  "If  Uncle  Dick 
said  so  you  can  depend  on  it." 

John  Augustine's  ownership  was  notable  in  its  ter- 
mination which  saw  the  home  of  Washington  pass  from 
the  precarious  ownership  of  an  individual  to  the  more 
comprehensive  and  efficient  care  of  a  zealous  national 
organization  which  sprang  into  being  for  this  patriotic 
purpose. 


CHAPTER  XX 

Mount  Vernon  Lands  Dimmish — Burden  of  a  National  Shrine 
— Neglect  and  Decay — Speculators — Vain  Appeal  for  Gov- 
ernment Purchase — Ann  Pamela  Cunningham  Organizes 
the  Mount  Vernon  Ladies'  Association  of  the  Union — Con- 
tract for  Purchase — Campaign  for  Funds — Edward  Everett's 
Work — Possession  Given — Restoration  Begun — During  the 
War — Regents,  Superintendents,  and  Other  Officials. 

THE  maintenance  of  Mount  Vernon  on  the  scale 
established  by  General  Washington  was  only 
possible  for  a  man  of  his  other  resources.  When 
he  died  he  owned,  besides  the  eight  thousand  acres  on  or 
near  Dogue  Creek  and  Little  Hunting  Creek,  other  land 
and  chattels  which  he  estimated  to  be  worth  five 
hundred  and  thirty  thousand  dollars.  He  directed  that 
these  possessions  be  sold  and  the  proceeds  be  divided  in 
twenty-three  parts.  His  will  named  twenty-three  or 
more  of  his  sister's  and  brothers'  children,  and  the  four 
grandchildren  of  Mrs.  Washington,  who  received  each 
at  most  one  twenty-third  part.  This  bequest,  generous 
as  it  was,  made  none  of  the  recipients  wealthy. 

When  Mount  Vernon  passed  to  Bushrod  Washington 
its  yielding  acres  were  diminished  more  than  two-thirds. 
The  owner  was  wholly  without  the  western  landed  do- 
main of  his  uncle  from  which  strip  after  strip  had  been 
sold  to  realize  the  capital  needed  to  support  his  seat  on 
the  Potomac.  Each  subsequent  transfer  of  Mount 
Vernon  saw  the  boundary  lines  draw  in.  The  last 


MOUNT  VERNON  255 

private  owner,  John  Augustine  Washington,  had  about 
twelve  hundred  acres.  As  the  owners  of  the  mansion 
saw  their  lands  diminish,  they  saw  the  obligations  at- 
tached to  its  ownership  increase  by  leaps  and  bounds. 
Fifty  years  after  his  death  Washington's  fame  and  the 
patriotic  curiosity  to  see  his  home  and  tomb  had  grown 
to  such  proportions  that  it  was  not  possible  any  longer 
for  the  owners  to  live  there  with  privacy  or  without 
bankruptcy.  In  spite  of  their  devotion  to  the  sacred 
spot  it  became  a  burden  they  could  not  any  longer  bear. 

Year  after  year  saw  the  place  fall  farther  and  farther 
into  neglect  and  decay.  Justice  Washington  was  ab- 
sent on  the  bench  nearly  all  the  twenty-seven  years  of 
his  ownership.  His  nephew  and  heir,  John  Augustine, 
survived  him  less  than  three  years.  The  widow  of  John 
Augustine  struggled  bravely  with  the  heavy  burden, 
and  finally,  when  her  eldest  son,  John  Augustine,  mar- 
ried in  his  twenty-second  year,  she  handed  the  estate 
over  to  him  and  fled  with  relief  to  a  remote  home  in  the 
mountains  on  the  western  edge  of  the  state. 

In  addition  to  tourists  from  Europe  and  all  parts  of 
the  world,  every  one  in  public  life  in  Washington  City 
felt  privileged  to  come  and  to  send  his  friends  and 
visiting  constituents  with  letters  of  introduction. 
Among  his  father's  and  grandmother's  papers  the  sur- 
viving son  of  the  last  owner  has  an  astonishing  number 
of  letters  from  members  of  the  antebellum  Senate, 
House,  Supreme  Court,  and  Cabinets  asking  attention 
for  the  bearers.  Hospitality  directed  that  they  have 
not  merely  the  liberty  of  the  house  and  grounds,  but 
substantial  entertainment  as  well.  It  was  not  then  an 
easy  hour's  ride  on  the  wings  of  electricity.  The 


256  MOUNT  VERNON 

journey  was  made  in  a  primitive  slow  river  steamer  or  in 
carriages  over  precarious  roads. 

Bushrod's  heir  foresaw  that  Mount  Vernon  would 
eventually  ruin  any  member  of  the  family  who  under- 
took to  wring  a  living  from  its  well-worn  acres  and  re- 
mained to  meet  the  tide  of  visitors  with  open  house 
and  open-handed  hospitality,  which  is  the  tradition  of 
the  planters.  In  his  will  he  wisely  included  permission 
for  his  heirs  to  sell  to  the  national  government.  The 
mansion  and  estate  reached  his  son  in  a  depleted  and 
ruined  state.  Had  he  the  means  to  restore  it  to  its 
original  condition  it  would  have  required  an  annual 
fortune  to  keep  it  in  repair,  under  the  normal  wear  and 
tear  of  pilgrims,  and  to  maintain  a  corps  of  guards 
against  the  idle,  conscienceless  visitors  who  not  merely 
stole  but  destroyed  to  bear  away  souvenirs  of  the  great 
shrine. 

As  early  as  1848  speculators  were  keen  to  acquire  the 
home  and  tomb  of  the  first  President.  His  great- 
grandnephew  knew  better  than  any  one  else  how  many 
and  how  keen  they  were,  and  he  refused  at  great  sacri- 
fice to  allow  the  estate  to  drift  into  speculative  hands. 
At  one  time  he  was  offered  three  hundred  thousand 
dollars  for  the  house  and  one  thousand  acres.  At  an- 
other time  he  refused  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
dollars  for  the  house  and  two  hundred  and  fifty  acres. 
Mr.  Washington  was  not  holding  Mount  Vernon  pri- 
marily for  a  high  price.  He  had  a  proper  sense  of  its 
speculative  value  but  he  had  also  a  proper  and  a  higher 
sense  of  its  patriotic  national  quality,  and  for  this 
reason  he  withheld  it  that  the  United  States  Govern- 
ment or  the  State  of  Virginia  might  own  and  care  for  it. 


ANN   PAMELA   CUNNINGHAM 

Founder  and  First  Regent  of  the  Mount  Vernon  Ladies'  Association  of  the  Union. 
From  a  portrait  whic-h  hung  for  nearly  twenty  years  in  the  Family  Dining- 
room  at  Mount  Vernon,  and  now  hangs  in  the  Senate  Chambers  of 
the  Capitol  of  South  Carolina.     From  a  painting  by  Stolle 


MOUNT  VERNON  257 

At  one  time  he  offered  to  let  either  the  state  or  the 
national  government  take  Mount  Vernon  at  its  own 
price.  Both  refused.  So  far  as  governmental  ap- 
preciation, national  or  state,  were  concerned,  the  home 
of  the  immortal  First  Citizen  went  begging. 

Mount  Vernon  seemed  doomed  to  decay  and  per- 
haps to  disappear.  That  fate  overtook  many  of  the 
famed  mansions  intimately  associated  with  Washing- 
ton's life,  which  their  builders  raised,  not  as  he  did  in 
perishable  wood,  but  in  enduring  brick.  Mount  Vernon 
survived  Wakefield,  where  Washington  was  born; 
Greenaway  Court  about  which  as  a  young  man  he  made 
his  early  surveys  under  the  friendly  eye  of  old  Lord 
Fairfax;  the  White  House,  scene  of  his  wedding  festivi- 
ties; Mr.  Digges'  Warburton  Manor,  and  the  Fairfaxs' 
Belvoir  in  sight  of  his  own  front  door;  nearby  Hollin 
Hall  of  another  neighbor,  Thomson  Mason;  and  Council- 
lor Carter's  Nomini  Hall  where  he  was  a  frequent 
visitor. 

But,  more  enduring  than  the  work  of  man's  hand  was 
custom,  the  work  of  his  heart.  By  day  and  by  night,  as 
the  boats  sped  along  the  Potomac  past  the  tomb  of 
Washington,  their  bells  tolled  in  memory  of  the  de- 
parted liberator  who  lay  asleep  beneath  the  trees  on  the 
hillside.  Many  heard  but  only  one  responded.  Jour- 
neying up  the  river  one  night  in  the  year  1853,  a  South 
Carolina  woman  was  moved  by  the  solemnity  of  the  toll- 
ing bell,  by  the  decay  she  knew  of  in  spite  of  the  softening 
moonlight  and  by  the  tales  of  the  neglect  of  govern- 
ment, to  a  plan  for  the  salvation  of  Mount  Vernon. 
Her  inspiration  was  to  place  the  work  of  rescue  in  the 
hands  of  the  women  of  America.  This  was  a  bolder  proj- 


258  MOUNT  VERNON 

ect  then  than  now.  Feminine  activity  was  undignified 
not  to  say  unorganized.  She  confided  the  idea  to  her 
daughter,  who  seized  it  and  became  its  standard-bearer. 
This  was  Ann  Pamela  Cunningham,  founder  and  first 
Regent  of  the  Mount  Vernon  Ladies'  Association  of  the 
Union. 

Miss  Cunningham  possessed  a  strong  will  and  in- 
domitable purpose  in  a  frail  body.  But  even  when 
invalidism  kept  her  off  her  feet  she  planned  and  wrote 
and  exhorted  in  a  truly  remarkable  manner.  She 
began  her  crusade  for  funds  to  purchase  Mount  Vernon 
in  December,  1853.  For  three  years,  though  she  was 
breaking  the  way,  there  was  little  tangible  result.  The 
organization  was  unincorporated  and  though  some 
money  was  coming  in  it  was  inconsiderable  in  propor- 
tion to  the  effort  or  to  the  whole  amount  required. 

At  first  Miss  Cunningham  reported  that  Mr.  Wash- 
ington's reception  of  her  plan  was  not  wholly  cordial, 
and  this  was  wholly  natural.  The  day  of  feminine 
efficiency  had  not  arrived.  Even  Miss  Cunningham 
operated  under  an  incognito,  as  "The  Southern  Ma- 
tron," and  was  horrified  when  her  own  name  appeared 
in  an  obscure  journal.  Moreover,  the  fact  that  she 
was  an  invalid  did  not  inspire  confidence  in  her  ability 
to  accomplish  such  a  prodigious  work.  Her  prop- 
osition to  Mr.  Washington  was  based  on  hope,  ex- 
pectation perhaps,  and  promise;  all  at  the  time  with- 
out substance. 

The  idea  had  taken  form,  however,  and  the  patriotic 
fervor  of  Miss  Cunningham  and  her  growing  group  of 
workers  began  to  achieve  results.  The  Assembly  of 
the  State  of  Virginia  granted  a  charter  to  the  Mount 


MOUNT  VERNON  259 

Vernon  Ladies'  Association  of  the  Union  on  the  seven- 
teenth day  of  March,  1856,  which  it  revised  by  a  further 
act  of  March,  1858. 

The  governing  body  of  the  Association  thereby  con- 
sists of  a  Regent  and  the  Grand  Council  made  up  of 
the  Vice-Regents,  who  are  appointed  from  each  state 
in  the  Union.  They  serve  without  pay.  By  this 
charter  it  is  provided  that,  should  the  Association  fail 
in  its  work,  Mount  Vernon  Mansion  and  land  shall  be 
taken  over  by  the  State  of  Virginia  and  held  sacred  to 
the  purposes  for  which  it  was  purchased  from  the  Wash- 
ington family.  The  work  of  the  ladies  is  surveyed 
once  a  year  by  a  Board  of  Visitors  appointed  by  the 
Governor  and  reporting  to  him.  Mount  Vernon  is 
exempt  from  taxation,  and  the  sum  saved  thereby  is 
in  effect  Virginia's  annual  contribution  to  the  work. 

On  the  incorporation  of  the  Association  Mr.  Wash- 
ington at  once  entered  into  a  contract  with  it  for  the 
sale  of  the  mansion  and  two  hundred  and  two  acres  of 
land  immediately  surrounding  it  for  two  hundred  thou- 
sand dollars,  giving  four  years  during  which  to  complete 
the  payment. 

The  agreement  with  the  Washington  heirs  specified 
that  they  "shall  at  all  times  have  and  enjoy  the  right 
to  inter  the  remains  of  such  persons  whose  remains 
are  in  the  vault  at  Mount  Vernon  as  are  not  now  in- 
terred, and  to  place  the  said  vault  in  such  a  secure  and 
permanent  condition  as  he  or  they  shall  see  fit,  and  to 
enclose  the  same  so  as  not  to  include  more  than  a  half- 
acre  of  land,  and  the  said  vault,  the  remains  in  and 
around  it,  and  the  enclosure  shall  never  be  removed  or 
disturbed,  and  that  no  other  person  hereafter  shall  ever 


260  MOUNT  VERNON 

be  interred  or  entombed  within  the  said  vault  or  en- 
closure." 

The  campaign  for  funds  was  organized  on  the  plan  of 
dollar  contributions,  and  every  state  responded  to  the 
call.  The  most  notable  individual  assistance  given 
the  Association  in  its  campaign  for  the  purchase  money 
came  from  the  Honorable  Edward  Everett  of  Mass- 
achusetts. For  four  years  he  travelled  from  New 
England  to  the  Mississippi  and  south  into  Georgia 
delivering  his  oration  on  the  character  of  Washington 
and  devoting  the  proceeds  to  the  purchase  fund.  In 
addition  he  accepted  the  proposal  of  the  editor  of  the 
New  York  Ledger  to  write  one  article  each  week  for 
one  year,  for  which  ten  thousand  dollars  was  paid  to 
the  fund.  In  all,  Mr.  Everett,  by  tongue  and  pen, 
earned  and  donated  to  the  purchase  money  needed  to 
redeem  Mount  Vernon  the  sum  of  $68,294.54,  more 
than  one-third  of  the  whole  amount. 

The  final  payment  on  the  purchase  contract  was  made 
in  December,  1859,  and  formal  possession  was  given 
February  22,  1860.  On  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil 
War  John  Augustine  Washington  joined  the  Confed- 
erate Army  and  was  given  a  commission  as  aide  on 
General  Robert  E.  Lee's  staff,  with  the  rank  of  Colonel. 
He  was  killed  September  13,  1861,  at  Cheat  Mountain, 
and  was  buried  in  a  family  burying  ground  at  Charles- 
town,  West  Virginia. 

In  the  mansion  at  this  time  the  only  objects  asso- 
ciated with  the  General's  life  there  were  the  Key  of  the 
Bastille,  the  clay  bust  of  Washington  which  Houdon  mod- 
elled from  life,  a  plaster  bust  of  LaFayette,  the  old  globe 
in  the  library,  and  some  camp  equipment.  The  owner 


MOUNT  VERNON  261 

said  that  aside  from  papers,  these  were  the  only  things 
which  he  possessed  which  had  belonged  to  the  General, 
and  he  presented  them  to  the  Association. 

Upton  H.  Herbert  was  the  first  resident  superin- 
tendent for  the  Association,  and  the  estate  was  placed 
under  his  care,  and  he  began  restorations  a  few  months 
before  possession  was  given.  The  mansion  received 
first  attention.  The  crumbling  portico,  whose  roof 
was  at  the  time  supported  in  places  by  masts  from  the 
sailboats  of  the  river  fishermen,  offered  the  most  com- 
pelling opportunity;  the  tottering  colonnades  were 
strengthened  and  these  and  the  mansion  received  the 
needed  protection  of  paint.  All  the  outbuildings  near 
the  house  had  survived  but  were  in  bad  condition. 
They  were  all  roofed  in  1860.  The  walks  and  drives 
were  cleared,  the  wharf  was  made  practical,  and  a  small 
steamer,  the  Thomas  Collyer,  was  purchased  and  put 
in  commission  to  carry  visitors  between  Washington 
City  and  Mount  Vernon.  From  this  source  the  Asso- 
ciation received  its  first  revenue.  The  work  began  to 
march,  when  suddenly  the  Civil  War  broke  out,  the 
steamer  was  confiscated  for  army  transport  service,  in- 
terest in  Washington's  home  was  deflected,  and  rev- 
enue was  almost  totally  cut  off. 

There  followed  dark  days  for  the  courageous  women 
who  had  undertaken  the  salvation  of  Washington's 
home,  but  they  did  not  falter  even  in  the  face  of  war; 
they  maintained  the  work,  and  improvements  pro- 
gressed, though  only  by  many  individual  sacrifices  and 
contributions  from  the  members'  private  savings,  which 
some  of  them  were  little  able  to  give.  The  pioneers 
remember  with  especial  gratitude  the  substantial  as- 


362  MOUNT  VERNON 

sistance  given  in  these  days  by  George  W.  Riggs  of 
Washington,  for  many  years  treasurer  of  the  Associa- 
tion, who  financed  many  an  emergency. 

During  the  Civil  War  Mount  Vernon  was  by  spon- 
taneous consent  of  those  on  both  sides  of  the  great 
contest  the  only  neutral  ground  in  the  country.  Sol- 
diers were  requested  to  leave  their  arms  outside  the 
gates,  which  they  did,  and  men  in  blue  and  men  in 
gray  met  fraternally  before  the  tomb  of  the  Father  of 
their  divided  country.  Mr.  Herbert  remained  on  the 
estate  throughout  the  war  and  at  its  end  said:  "There 
was  no  effort  to  disturb  the  tomb  or  the  place  by 
troops  on  either  side  during  that  period."  Which  ad- 
mits the  inference  that  it  was  a  civilian  relic  hunter  who 
passed  the  iron  barrier  before  Washington's  sarcoph- 
agus and  broke  off  one  of  the  talons  of  the  eagle  sculp- 
tured on  its  top,  for  this  bit  of  vandalism  was  committed 
at  this  time. 

After  the  war  the  Association  was  so  poor  that  it 
was  unable  to  pay  a  superintendent's  salary,  and  Miss 
Cunningham  came  in  1868  and  lived  at  Mount  Vernon 
and  directed  operations  until  her  frail  health  broke 
down  entirely  in  1872.  J.  M.  Hollingsworth  then  took 
up  the  work  as  resident  secretary  and  superintendent. 
He  remained  in  charge  until  May  30,  1885,  and  was 
succeeded  by  Harrison  Howell  Dodge  who  has  held  this 
same  post  more  than  thirty-one  years.  James  Young  came 
to  assist  Mr.  Dodge  as  clerk  in  1886,  but  he  has  been 
assistant  superintendent  and  James  Archer  has  been 
resident  engineer  since  these  offices  were  created  in 
1890  and  1907,  respectively. 

Since  the  death  of  the  Founder  of  the  Mount  Vernon 


MOUNT  VERNON  263 

Ladies'  Association  it  has  had  three  Regents:  Mrs.  Lily 
M.  Berghman  of  Pennsylvania,  who  presided  in  council 
from  1873  until  her  death  in  1891;  Mrs.  Justine  Van 
Rensselaer  Townsend  of  New  York,  who  held  the 
presiding'office  until  1909;  and  Miss  Harriet  C.  Comegys 
of  Delaware,  who  has  held  the  office  since  that  date. 

Miss  Cunningham  died  May  1,  1875,  at  her  home  at 
Laurens,  South  Carolina,  a  little  over  one  year  after  resign- 
ing the  office  of  Regent,  which  she  had  held  from  the  birth 
of  the  Association.  In  her  letter  of  resignation  to  the 
Council  of  Vice-Regents  she  left  this  declaration  of 
purpose:  "Ladies,  the  Home  of  Washington  is  in  your 
charge;  see  to  it  that  you  keep  it  the  Home  of  Wash- 
ington. Let  no  irreverent  hand  change  it;  no  vandal 
hands  desecrate  it  with  the  fingers  of  progress!  Those 
who  go  to  the  Home  where  he  lived  and  died,  wish  to 
see  in  what  he  lived  and  died!  Let  one  spot  in  this 
grand  country  of  ours  be  saved  from  change!  Upon 
you  rests  this  duty." 


CHAPTER  XXI 

Remaking  the  Home  of  George  Washington — The  Summer 
House— The  Old  Tomb— Deer  Park— Gifts  of  Protective 
Lands — North  Lodge  Gates — Sea  Wall — Garden,  Screen, 
and  Ha-Ha  Walls — A  Colonial  Ruin  Bought  to  Get  Colonial 
Brick — Tunnelling  to  Prevent  Mount  Vernon  from  Slipping — 
Earliest  Shingles  Still  Shelter  the  Mansion — Flagging  from 
St.  Bees — Precautions  Extraordinary — If  Mount  Vernon 
Were  Destroyed — Historic  Relics — When  Naval  Vessels 
Pass  the  Tomb  of  the  Father  of  His  Country — A  Symbol — 
The  End. 

THERE  have  been  two  grand  divisions  in  the  life 
of  Mount  Vernon  since  the  passing  of  the  man 
who  made  it  and  made  it  famous.  For  sixty 
years  it  declined  and  decayed.  Cedar  and  scrub  pine 
possessed  the  neglected  fields.  The  unregenerate  honey- 
suckle caressed  and  then  strangled  everything  its  ten- 
tacles touched.  Drives  and  paths  lost  their  gravelled 
surface  under  matted  wire  grass.  The  unprotected 
palings  of  the  garden  fences  rotted  to  the  core,  literally 
lost  their  heart,  and  tottered.  Roof  and  column  suc- 
cumbed to  the  corrosion  of  time  and  the  elements;  the 
dampened  plaster  lost  its  grasp  and  fell;  and  paradoxi- 
cally the  heavy  feet  and  meddling  fingers  of  the  thou- 
sands of  pilgrims  were  hastening  the  disintegration  of 
the  shrine  to  which  they  came  with  worshipful  pa- 
triotism. Once  flames  raised  their  tongues  and  licked 
out  one  of  the  buildings,  mercifully  detached.  Only 
by  a  seeming  miracle  has  the  frail  old  mansion,  whose 

264 


MOUNT  VERNON  265 

timber  is  tinder,  been  preserved  from  the  annihilation 
by  fire. 

Then  came  the  patriotic  women  who  took  up  the 
work  government  had  repudiated,  and  the  mantle  of 
a  new  life  spread  over  the  place.  For  another  period  of 
almost  sixty  years  restoration  has  been  re-creating  the 
home  of  Washington  as  he  established  and  held  it  and 
loved  it. 

The  rooms  of  the  mansion,  the  various  outbuildings, 
and  the  special  phases  of  work  about  the  estate  were 
apportioned  among  the  Vice-Regents.  Each  had  her 
share  of  the  whole  work  of  restoration  which  became  her 
obligation  and  for  which  she  gathered  the  funds. 

The  efforts  of  the  pioneer  Regents  had  overmatched 
their  first  need,  and  when  Mount  Vernon  was  paid  for 
there  remained  a  balance  of  above  twenty  thousand 
dollars.  This  enabled  them  to  begin  repairs  which 
would  forestall  disintegration,  and  to  buy  the  steamer 
which  would  furnish  further  funds.  At  the  end  of  the 
war  which  had  deprived  them  of  this  revenue  they 
fought  for  an  indemnity,  and  a  cautious  Congress 
allowed  them  seven  thousand  dollars  and  directed  its 
expenditure  under  army  engineers.  The  sum  went  into 
a  new  wharf  and  into  the  digging  of  a  channel  for  a 
larger  boat. 

For  the  first  twenty  years  after  the  war  revenue  was 
slight  and  the  improvements  were  maintained  in  a  large 
measure  by  contributions  from  the  private  purses  of  the 
ladies  of  the  Association  or  by  funds  raised  by  their 
efforts.  Indeed,  until  1886,  there  was  a  desperate 
struggle  to  preserve  rather  than  to  restore.  At  the  end 
of  that  period  the  mansion  and  outbuildings  were  placed 


266  MOUNT  VERNON 

beyond  the  probability  of  destructive  decay,  and  order 
was  restored  in  the  environing  grounds. 

The  summer  house  on  the  brow  of  the  hill  to  the  south 
of  the  mansion  was  rebuilt  in  1886  with  contributions 
from  the  school  children  of  Louisiana.  From  this  point 
Washington  watched  the  schooners  load  and  unload  at 
his  wharf,  and  here  hung  a  bell  which  regulated  the  hours 
of  labor  on  the  estate.  The  deep  cellar  underneath  was 
intended  by  the  General  for  an  ice-house,  but  it  was 
abandoned  for  another  in  a  more  convenient  locality 
north  of  the  mansion. 

From  the  time  that  the  bodies  of  Washington  and 
other  members  of  his  family  were  removed  in  1831  the 
old  tomb  was  abandoned  and  allowed  to  decay.  This 
spot  so  precious  in  association  was  reclaimed  in  1887,  by 
contributions  from  the  State  of  Michigan,  and  restored 
as  nearly  as  possible  to  the  condition  in  which  Wash- 
ington put  it  when  he  built  it  in  pious  fulfillment  of 
his  brother  Lawrence's  will.  The  capstone,  inscribed 
"  Washington  Family,"  had  been  removed  and  was  lost 
sight  of  for  many  years,  It  was  discovered  at  Wood- 
lawn  Mansion,  worn  by  service  as  a  carriage  block,  and 
was  replaced  in  its  ancient  position. 

At  the  same  time  the  smothered  bluff  before  the  man- 
sion was  cleared,  the  rotted  palings  of  the  deer-park  stock- 
ade were  removed,  and  an  iron  fence  replaced  them  and 
the  enclosure  was  again  stocked  with  deer,  by  the  gener- 
osity of  the  sons  of  Mrs.  Robert  Cambell  of  Missouri. 

The-amusement  speculator  was  for  many  years  a  con- 
tinual menace  to  Mount  Vernon.  The  rising  ground  on 
the  north  side  of  the  mansion  became  the  basis  of  a  plan, 
in  anticipation  of  the  coming  of  the  electric-car  service 


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MOUNT  VERNON  267 

to  the  estate,  to  establish  a  public  resort  there.  In  1887 
Jay  Gould  of  New  York  visited  the  national  shrine  and 
heard  of  this  scheme.  His  sense  of  propriety  as  well  as 
his  sense  of  proportion  grasped  how  essential  this  piece 
of  land  was  to  the  ideal  of  those  preserving  Washington's 
home,  and  he  bought  thirty-three  and  a  half  protective 
acres  and  added  them  to  the  Association's  holdings. 
Another  gift  of  two  acres  on  the  west  river  front  came 
from  Christian  Heurich  of  Washington  City,  in  1893, 
when  an  unhealthy  swamp  near  the  wharf  was  con- 
verted into  a  fertile  meadow.  This  brought  the  landed 
holdings  of  the  Association  up  to  two  hundred  and 
thirty-seven  and  a  half  acres. 

The  Masons  and  other  patriotic  citizens  of  Texas  pro- 
vided the  means  to  erect  the  North  Lodge  Gates  when, 
in  1892,  the  electric  railway  established  its  terminus 
here.  They  are  wholly  new,  but  in  spirit  and  architect- 
ural detail  repeat  bits  from  the  General's  own  designs  for 
other  buildings  on  his  estate.  Another  new  feature,  un- 
known there  before,  is  the  sea  wall,  extending  along  the 
river  front,  provided  as  "a  necessary  protection  to  the 
wooded  shore  against  the  wave  wash  during  storms." 
It  was  built  in  the  nineties  and  was  the  gift,  as  was  the 
wharf -house  erected  in  1891,  of  Mrs.  Phoebe  A.  Hearst 
of  California.  The  old  wharf  of  pilings  after  generations 
of  repairs  was  replaced  in  1913  by  the  present  permanent 
structure  of  cement. 

When  Washington  completed  his  comprehensive 
scheme  of  landscape  gardening  after  the  Revolution  he 
used  brick  walls  with  liberality  and  with  decided  effect. 
They  were  of  three  kinds:  the  garden  walls,  the  screen 
walls,  and  the  ha-ha  walls.  The  first  was  a  formal  part 


268  MOUNT  VERNON 

of  the  plan  of  his  buildings  and  grounds.  They  have 
withstood  the  wear  of  all  the  intervening  years  since. 
Even  the  decorative  palings  of  the  fences  they  support 
are  in  large  part  original. 

There  is  a  different  story  to  tell  of  the  screen  and 
ha-ha  walls.  The  former  were  wholly  utilitarian  and 
masked  the  buildings  north  and  south  of  the  mansion 
from  the  lawn.  They  were  in  ruins  and  had  in  part  dis- 
appeared when  the  restoration  was  undertaken  in  1910. 
The  ha-ha  walls,  so  intimately  a  part  of  the  grounds  as 
to  be  invisible  from  the  mansion,  had  almost  dis- 
appeared. The  north  ha-ha  wall  was  replaced  in  1896, 
the  south  in  1910,  and  the  west  in  1915.  In  these  works 
it  was  thought  wise  not  to  depend  on  the  skill  of  modern 
brickmakers  to  imitate  the  effect  of  a  century  of  wear  and 
weather,  so  the  bricks  were  bought  and  brought  from  the 
ruins  of  Thatcher  Thornton's  splendid  old  colonial  man- 
sion, Society  Hill,  at  the  head  of  Upper  Machodac  Creek, 
an  inlet  on  the  Westmoreland  shore  of  the  Potomac,  and 
they  contributed  harmoniously  to  the  mellow  tones  of 
the  original  brick.  The  walls  at  Mount  Vernon  are  re- 
produced to-day  exactly  as  Washington  planned  and 
left  them,  except  the  boundary  wall  at  the  North  Lodge 
Gate,  which,  though  harmonious  in  design,  is  newly 
made  necessary  by  conditions  which  the  General  did 
not  anticipate. 

Washington  declared  the  old  tomb  to  be  "  improperly 
situated."  The  reasons  thereof  were  the  springs  which, 
on  an  extensive  stratum  on  the  Virginia  side  of  the 
Potomac,  render  the  adjoining  banks  liable  to  slides. 
Mount  Vernon  Mansion  and  the  old  tomb  stand  on  a 
height  which  has  been  peculiarly  susceptible  to  danger 


MOUNT  VERNON  269 

from  this  source.  Minor  slides  occurred  at  intervals. 
To  forestall  further  danger  the  hill  was,  in  1904,  tun- 
nelled by  Mr.  Archer's  suggestion  and  under  his  direc- 
tion, and  is  now  drained  of  twenty  thousand  gallons  of 
water  a  day,  an  engineering  feat  as  unique  as  it  was  suc- 
cessful in  its  preservative  effect. 

In  another  way  nature  acts  in  time  continually  to 
change  the  conditions  created  and  intended  by  Wash- 
ington. His  plans  for  trees  and  vistas  were  precise  as 
they  were  extensive.  He  left  a  mass  of  information  in 
his  diary  and  letters  by  which  to  re-create  and  preserve 
the  arboreal  environment  he  prepared.  These  have 
been  followed  in  discounting  the  changing  aspects  of 
growth,  but  this  problem  was  less  difficult  than  to  re- 
store the  destructive  influences  of  storm,  insects,  and 
decay.  Washington  built  and  planted  with  an  eye  to 
the  vistas  with  which  his  estate  naturally  abounds.  The 
weed  trees  which  grew  up  and  obscured  these  outlooks 
have  been  given  the  consideration  which  they  merit,  for 
the  custodians  of  Mount  Vernon  subscribe  to  the  land- 
scape artist's  axiom  that  a  view  is  more  valuable  than  a 
tree.  The  custom  of  planting  memorial  trees  near  the 
tomb  has  been  discontinued. 

The  mansion  was  reshingled  in  1913,  for  the  first 
time  in  fifty-two  years.  This  was  a  great  event.  The 
business  of  the  repairs  was  approached  as  usual  with  an 
eye  to  preserving  the  identity  of  every  detail.  The  old 
shingles  were  duplicated  in  North  Carolina  cypress 
from  Lake  Waccamaw,  and  hewed  to  the  old  samples. 
Tarpaulins  were  made  to  fit  the  roof,  and  their  safe 
anchorage  planned  against  high  winds.  As  small  a 
space  as  possible  was  opened  at  one  time.  Every  night, 


270  MOUNT  VERNON 

and  during  the  day  at  any  sign  of  "weather,"  the  tar- 
paulins were  battened  down  tight.  When  the  house 
was  re-covered  a  stain  reproduced  the  age  and  original 
tones  of  the  old  roof. 

In  prying  loose  the  shingles  along  the  line  where  the 
portico's  roof  reaches  up  on  to  the  mansion  Mr.  Dodge 
discovered  that  a  whole  section  of  shingles  had  been  left 
in  place  underneath  when  the  portico  was  restored  in 
1860,  a  steeper  pitch  being  given  its  roof  at  that  time  by 
extending  it  back  on  to  the  roof  of  the  mansion  to  the 
sills  of  the  dormer  windows.  Among  these  hidden 
shingles  there  proved  to  be  valiant  survivors  of  the 
course  laid  on  when  the  mansion  was  first  built.  The 
elements  had  etched  evidence  on  their  sides  which 
showed  that  they  had  been  turned  and  twice  exposed. 
Some  of  the  original  shingles  were  used  when  the  man- 
sion was  enlarged  and  re-roofed  during  the  Revolution. 
It  is  authentic  later  tradition  that  the  roof  had  not  been 
touched  since  the  old  General's  death  until  1860.  At 
that  time  the  old  shingles  were  left  before  the  east  dormer 
windows  on  that  portion  of  the  roof  over  which  the 
portico  roof  extended.  Hence  it  is  an  interesting  fact 
that  among  the  shingles  on  Mount  Vernon  to-day  there 
are  some  which  were  placed  there  when  the  original 
villa  was  built. 

Another  result  of  Mr.  Dodge's  research  was  the  dis- 
covery of  the  quarry  from  which  were  cut  the  stone 
flaggings  in  the  great  portico  pavement.  The  originals 
there  have  thinned  nearly  to  the  vanishing  point.  Frost 
destroyed  the  edging  course  of  the  flags  first  laid  there 
by  Lund  Washington  when  the  portico  was  erected 
during  the  Revolution,  and  the  General  included  the  re- 


MOUNT  VERNON  271 

paving  of  his  portico  among  his  repairs  after  the  war. 
After  many  disappointments  the  sandstone  blocks 
which  he  placed  there  were  matched  two  years  ago  in 
the  ancient  quarries  whence  he  derived  the  original  on 
the  estate  of  Lord  Lonsdale,  at  St.  Bees  Head,  on  the 
west  coast  of  England  near  Whitehaven.  A  supply  has 
been  ordered  in  excess  of  that  needed  to  repave  the 
portico,  and  the  reserve  stock  will  be  available  should 
the  source  of  these  paving  stones  become  exhausted. 

The  interior  of  the  mansion  has  known  radical  re- 
pair only  in  two  instances.  It  is  true  that  the  underpin- 
nings have  been  made  more  nearly  equal  to  the  increased 
strain  of  the  growing  procession  of  visitors  and  that 
minor  visible  discrepancies  have  been  corrected  with 
finished  skill,  but  the  West  Parlor  and  the  Banquet  Hall 
have  demanded  and  received  the  more  ambitious  treat- 
ment. The  harmonious  condition  of  the  panelling  in 
the  former  room  was  the  work  of  repair  in  1879.  The 
ceiling  in  this  room  remained  intact  as  late  as  1878  when 
it  gave  signs  of  loosening  the  hold  it  had  kept  for  a  full 
century.  The  design  was  drawn  to  scale,  each  of  the 
twenty-eight  hundred  leaves  radiating  about  the  great 
circle  were  removed,  a  new  ceiling  laid  on,  and  the  dec- 
orations were  reproduced  in  the  original  material. 

Foresight  was  less  acute  in  the  case  of  the  ceiling  in 
the  Banquet  Hall.  It  cracked  and  pieces  fell  in  1880. 
At  that  time  it  was  merely  patched.  But  the  accident 
was  repeated  in  1884,  and  the  year  following  saw  the 
entire  ceiling  made  new  in  detail  identical  with  the 
original,  the  devices  of  husbandry  therein  being  re- 
peated in  the  decorative  effects  of  the  capitals  over  the 
doors. 


272  MOUNT  VERNON 

No  fire,  for  either  light  or  heat,  is  permitted  in  the 
mansion.  Visitors  are  admitted  only  during  the  hours 
of  daylight.  At  five  o'clock  in  summer  and  at  four 
o'clock  in  winter  the  house  is  closed.  During  the  winter 
months  heat  is  of  course  necessary  for  the  comfort  of 
visitors.  It  is  furnished  by  hot  water  brought  from 
boilers  detached  and  distant  from  the  big  house  and  is 
introduced  in  such  an  adroit  manner  as  to  make  the 
means  practically  invisible.  The  fireplaces  continue 
to  give  out  heat  as  in  the  olden  time,  but  from  the  un- 
seen coils  in  the  gratings  below  the  fire  baskets.  The 
hall  or  passage  is  heated  by  pipes  concealed  under  the 
perforated  supports  of  the  stair  treads.  To  these  and 
other  ingenious  extremes  does  the  care  of  Washington's 
home  extend  in  the  effort  to  preserve  not  merely  its 
very  existence,  but  its  spirit  as  well,  from  modern 
device. 

There  is  but  one  recorded  instance  that  the  mansion 
has  been  threatened  by  fire.  In  his  diary  Washington 
wrote  on  January  5,  1788:  "About  Eight  o'clock  in  the 
evening  we  were  alarmed,  and  the  house  a  good  deal 
endangered  by  the  soot  of  one  of  the  Chimneys  taking 
fire  &  burning  furiously,  discharging  great  flakes  of  fire 
on  the  Roof  but  happily  by  having  aid  at  hand  and 
proper  exertion  no  damage  ensued." 

Shortly  after  the  death  of  Bushrod  Washington  fire 
destroyed  the  greenhouse  and  "Quarters"  on  the  north 
side  of  the  formal  gardens,  and  they  were  restored  be- 
tween 1894  and  1896.*  A  complete  fire  department 

*  The  West  Quarters,  adjoining  the  Conservatory,  were  restored  by  penny  con- 
tributions, aggregating  over  one  thousand  dollars,  from  the  school  children  of 
Kansas.  The  East  Quarters  were  rebuilt  with  funds  raised  by  the  Vice-Regent  for 
the  State  of  New  York. 


MOUNT  VERNON  273 

was  installed  in  1892.  Fire  drills  are  frequent  and  the 
various  apparatus  are  subject  to  frequent  inspection. 
In  unison  with  the  intention  to  disturb  none  of  the 
colonial  harmonies,  the  fire-fighting  forces  remain  out 
of  sight.  A  steam  engine  is  kept  at  some  distance  from 
the  buildings,  but  the  main  batteries  of  hose  and  the 
chemical  engine  are  close  at  hand  in  a  sunken  well 
in  the  centre  of  the  circle  before  the  great  front  door. 
As  an  added  precaution  smoking  is  not  allowed  on  the 
estate.  Watchmen  and  guards  patrol  the  big  house  and 
all  the  grounds  by  night  as  well  as  by  day. 

If,  in  the  last  emergency,  Mount  Vernon  were  de- 
stroyed, its  replica  would  rise  in  its  place.  Safely  stored 
in  fireproof  vaults  in  the  National  Capital  are  architect- 
ural drawings  of  every  building,  with  every  conceivable 
detail  of  structure  and  decoration.  With  these  are  a 
great  number  of  photographs  of  every  aspect,  inside 
and  out,  of  the  big  house  and  its  nest  of  buildings. 

It  has  been  seen  how  General  Washington's  personal 
belongings  and  the  contents  of  his  home  were  dis- 
persed, first  by  his  will,  which  removed  only  a  few 
objects  from  Mount  Vernon,  then  by  Mrs.  Washing- 
ton's gifts,  and  later  her  will,  by  which  her  grand- 
children came  into  possession  of  most  of  the  furnishings 
of  value,  and  finally  after  her  death  by  the  sale,  in  1802, 
when  the  General's  kinsmen  bought  many  souvenirs 
of  his  home  life.  In  1848  Bushrod  Washington's  heirs 
offered  for  sale  the  bulk  of  their  grand-uncle's  library. 
When  it  appeared  probable  that  this  library  would 
find  an  English  purchaser  and  be  removed  from  the 
country,  a  group  of  patriotic  Americans  arose  in  Mass- 
achusetts and  paid  a  price  which  insured  the  sale  to 


274  MOUNT  VERNON 

them.  The  books  were  presented  to  the  Boston 
Atheneum,  where  nearly  all  the  original  Mount  Vernon 
library  may  be  found  to-day. 

The  treasures  which  Martha  Washington  gave  her 
grandson,  George  Washington  Parke  Custis  of  Arling- 
ton, and  which  adorned  that  mansion  for  over  half  a 
century,  had  many  vicissitudes  on  the  outbreak  of  the 
war.  When  Arlington  was  taken  by  the  Federal  troops 
some  of  the  Washington  relics  had  been  removed  to 
Ravensworth,to  the  northwest  in  Fairfax  County;  others, 
left  in  the  house,  were  removed  to  the  Capital,  where 
they  were  placed  on  exhibition.  The  national  govern- 
ment after  the  war  restored  these  articles  to  Mr.  Custis' 
descendants,  who  have  made  some  of  the  most  valued 
contributions  to  the  reassembling  of  the  original  furnish- 
ings of  the  historic  mansion. 

Many  other  Mount  Vernon  treasures,  in  particular 
those  which  passed  from  Mrs.  Washington  through 
her  granddaughter,  Nellie  Custis  Lewis,  to  the  Lewis 
family,  and  valued  Washington  documents  and  letters 
in  the  hands  of  the  Washington  co-lateral  descendants 
of  the  General,  were  offered  at  public  sales  in  Philadel- 
phia in  the  early  nineties  of  the  last  century.  It  is 
from  the  purchasers  at  these  sales  that  the  Mount 
Vernon  Ladies'  Association  obtained  by  purchase,  gift, 
and  loan  others  of  the  relics  which  are  again  in  their 
original  positions. 

The  articles  already  mentioned  as  left  in  the  house 
when  the  Washington  family  sold  and  gave  possession 
of  it  were  the  nucleus  of  the  later  collection.  Among 
them  the  most  valuable  treasure  is  the  Houdon  bust  of 
Washington,  made  in  the  house  and  never  removed 


MOUNT  VERNON  275 

therefrom.  Perhaps  because  it  is  clay  instead  of 
marble,  it  seems  to  have  excited  no  cupidity  during 
the  early  distributions. 

Of  highest  historic  interest  is  the  bed  on  which  Wash- 
ington died,  which  is  in  its  original  position  in  his  bed- 
room over  the  library.  Here,  too,  is  the  mahogany 
shaving-stand  presented  to  the  General  by  the  first 
French  Minister  to  this  country;  his  military  trunk 
quaintly  curved  and  studded  with  brass  nails,  and  a 
chair  which  stood  in  the  room  the  night  of  his  death. 

The  "tambour  desk"  and  chair  which  were  be- 
queathed to  Dr.  Craik  are  again  in  the  library,  with  his 
silver  inkstand,  snuffers  and  tray;  and  here  is  the  Wash- 
ington family  Bible  containing  the  record  of  George 
Washington's  birth  and  christening.  A  few  books  of 
the  original  library  are  back  in  place  by  the  sides  of 
many  volumes  which  merely  duplicate  the  originals. 

Four  of  the  General's  swords  are  home  again,  and 
after  an  absence  of  over  a  century  the  old  crystal  and 
wrought-iron  lantern  which  Admiral^  Vernon  sent  Law- 
rence Washington  hangs  once  more  in  the  hall.  Nearby 
is  the  veritable  deed  given  by  Lord  Culpepper  to 
Nicholas  Spencer  and  John  Washington  for  the  tract 
on  which  Mount  Vernon  was  later  built. 

The  one  complete  group  in  the  mansion  is  that  asso- 
ciated with  the  Vaughan  mantel  in  the  Banquet  Hall. 
Here  are  the  identical  firedogs  presented  by  LaFayette, 
the  original  rosewood  pedestals,  clock,  candlesticks, 
vases,  and  wall  lamps.  Elsewhere  in  this  room  are 
the  model  of  the  Bastille  which  the  Polish  Gentleman 
found  in  the  portico  exposed  to  the  elements  and  the 
vandal  fingers  of  playful  children;  a  mirror  plateau 


276  MOUNT  VERNON 

imported  by  Washington  to  adorn  his  dining  table;  a 
painting  of  the  Great  Falls  of  the  Potomac;  his  gold 
watch,  knee  and  shoe  buckles,  silver  toilet  articles, 
silver  spectacles,  needle  book  used  at  Valley  Forge, 
spoons,  punch  bowl,  champagne  and  other  glasses, 
and  additional  souvenirs  not  only  of  the  master  of 
Mount  Vernon  but  of  its  mistress  and  of  Nellie  Custis. 
In  an  adjoining  parlor  is  the  harpsichord  which  Wash- 
ington imported  from  abroad  for  Nellie  and  over  which 
her  stern  grandmother  kept  her  so  many  hours  at 
tearful  practice. 

In  the  dining-room  are  the  sideboard,  a  sixteen- 
gallon  wine  chest  and  four  wine  decanters,  a  pair  of 
pitchers,  and  the  portrait  of  David  Rittenhouse,  which 
were  all  there  in  the  General's  day.  Elsewhere  are 
tables  and  chairs  which  Washington  placed  in  the  house 
and  some  of  the  identical  pictures.  But  where  the 
originals  either  of  pictures  or  furniture  could  not  be 
found  or,  being  found,  could  not  be  secured,  duplicates 
have  as  far  as  possible  been  installed,  awaiting  the 
proper  means  or  the  generous  impulses  which  will 
restore  the  identical  articles  which  Washington  knew 
and  used  in  his  home. 

The  whole  aspect  of  the  house  is  simple  without 
severity  and  elegant  without  ostentation,  representa- 
tive of  the  taste,  dignity,  and  eminence  of  the  great 
man  whose  environment  has  been  reconstructed.  The 
same  is  true  of  the  exterior  of  the  mansion  and  of  the 
grounds.  There  is  perhaps  a  trimness  to  the  walks 
and  a  smartness  to  the  cropped  lawns  and  an  absence 
of  littered  corners  which  even  the  old  General  could 
not  have  wrung  from  his  shiftless  slave  labor.  The 


0 


in 


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IMUr.  J- 


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SKELETON   MODEL  OF  MOUNT  VERNON  MANSION 

In  the  National  Museum  at  Washington 
Above,  the  river  front.     Below,  the  west  front  from  the  north 


MOUNT  VERNON  277 

young  trees  he  planted  and  watched  are  now  veteran 
giants,  many  with  the  deep  scars  of  time  and  storms 
bound  up  in  sustaining  cement.  But  if  the  General 
were  to  return  he  would  find  surprisingly  few  changes, 
in  the  spirit  of  the  place  least  of  all. 

The  ideal  sought  by  the  zealous  patriots  who  have 
the  custody  of  Washington's  home  is  to  maintain  the 
environment  which  he  created  in  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury. So  the  restoration  of  Mount  Vernon  may  be 
said  to  progress  backward.  But  the  cycle  of  fashion 
has  played  a  paradoxical  trick  on  the  old  place  by  mak- 
ing the  new  fashions  in  domestic  landscape  and  archi- 
tecture those  of  the  days  when  old  Mount  Vernon  was 
new. 

Though  it  is  the  tomb  of  Washington,  the  place  is 
instinct  with  We.  The  house  is  kept  with  the  nice 
domestic  simplicity  that  suggests  the  personal  pres- 
ence of  the  master  and  mistress.  The  solemnity  of 
death  is  only  sensed  when  one  stands  uncovered  be- 
neath the  open  sky  among  the  trees  before  the  reli- 
quary of  all  that  is  mortal  of  the  immortal  Washington, 
or  not  less  poignantly  when  upon  the  broad  Potomac 
one  hears  the  unfailing  requiem  of  the  bell  of  every 
passing  vessel. 

There  is  an  order  in  the  United  States  Navy  by  which, 
when  ships  of  the  service  pass  Mount  Vernon  between 
sunrise  and  sunset,  a  full  guard  and  band  is  paraded, 
the  bell  is  tolled,  the  colors  are  dropped  to  half-mast, 
the  bugle  sounds  taps,  the  guard  presents  arms,  and 
officers  and  men  on  deck  stand  at  attention  and  salute 
as  the  ship  passes  the  hallowed  spot. 

This  is  but  a  symbol  of  the  emotion  which  Mount 


278  MOUNT  VERNON 

Vernon  raises  in  the  heart  of  every  American,  com- 
manding the  attention  and  the  salute  of  all  lovers  of 
liberty.  It  is  not  merely  the  home  of  Washington, 
living  and  dead,  but  it  focusses  our  ideals,  and  our  glory 
as  a  people,  in  our  one  national  shrine. 


THE   END 


APPENDIX 

A— The  Title  to  Mount  Vernon. 
B — Table  of  General  Washington's  Visits  to  Mount 
Vernon  While  President. 

C — Tables  of  Those  Born,  Married,  and  Buried  at 
Mount  Vernon. 

D — Regents  and  Vice-Regents  of  the  Mount  Vernon 
Ladies'  Association  of  the  Union,  Since  Its  Organi- 
zation. 


APPENDIX  A 

THE  TITLE  TO  MOUNT  VERNON 

I. — Lord  Culpepper  to  John  Washington  and  Nicholas  Spencer, 
1674,  5,000  acres,  "in  the  ffreshes  of  Pottomeek  River  and  neare 
opposite  to  Piscataway,  Indian  towne  of  Mariland,"  in  Stafford 
County,  Virginia.  Later  divisions  of  Stafford  County  placed  this 
land  in  Fairfax  County.  The  original  document  hangs  in  the  hall 
at  Mount  Vernon. 

II. — George  H.  Jeffers  to  Nicholas  Spencer  and  John  Washington, 
1679,  5,000  acres.  Grant,  on  record  in  Richmond. 

III. — John  Washington  bequeathed  his  half  of  the  above  land 
to  his  son,  Lawrence  Washington,  by  his  will,  1677;  recorded  in 
Westmoreland  County. 

IV. — A  division  of  the  above  tract  in  1690,  recorded  in  Stafford 
County,  by  which  Lawrence  Washington  received  2,500  acres, 
his  half  lying  to  the  north  and  east  on  the  river  and  Hunting  Creek. 

V. — Lawrence  Washington  to  his  daughter  Mildred,  2,500  acres 
as  above,  by  his  will,  1697;  recorded  hi  Westmoreland  County. 
Mildred  Washington  married  Roger  Gregory. 

VI. — Mildred  and  Roger  Gregory  to  her  brother  Augustine 
Washington,  2,500  acres  as  above,  by  deed,  May  26, 1726;  recorded 
in  Westmoreland  County 

VII. — Augustine  Washington  to  his  son  Lawrence  Washington, 
2,500  acres  as  above;  deed  recorded  at  a  session  of  the  General 
Court  of  Virginia,  Williamsburg,  October  28,  1740. 

VIII. — Augustine  Washington  confirmed  above  grant  to  his 
son  Lawrence  Washington  in  his  will,  1743;  recorded  in  King 
George  County. 

IX. — Lawrence  Washington  to  his  brother  George  Washington, 
all  his  real  estate  in  Virginia,  by  his  will,  1752;  recorded  in  Fairfax 
County.  Lawrence  and  George  Washington  both  added  lands  to 
the  tract  devised  by  their  father,  but  Mount  Vernon  Mansion 
and  present  surrounding  land  is  included  in  the  2,500  acres  above. 

X. — George  Washington  to  his  nephew  Bushrod  Washington, 
Mount  Vernon  Mansion  and  4,000  acres,  by  his  will,  1799;  re- 
corded in  Fairfax  County. 

XI. — Bushrod  Washington  to  his  nephew  John  Augustine  Wash- 

281 


282  APPENDIX 

ington,  Mount  Vernon  Mansion  and  1,225  acres,  by  his  will,  1829; 
recorded  in  Fairfax  County. 

XII. — John  Augustine  Washington  to  his  wife  Jane  C.  Wash- 
ington, all  his  property,  with  power  to  devise  it  as  she  pleased 
among  her  children,  by  his  will,  1832;  recorded  in  Jefferson 
County,  West  Virginia. 

XIII. — Jane  C.  Washington  to  her  oldest  son,  John  Augustine 
Washington,  Mount  Vernon  Mansion  and  1,225  acres,  deed,  1850; 
recorded  in  Fairfax  County. 

XIV. — Jane  C.  Washington  to  John  Augustine  Washington, 
by  her  will,  1855,  confirms  above  deed;  recorded  in  Jefferson 
County,  West  Virginia. 

XV. — A  Contract  between  John  Augustine  Washington  and 
the  Mount  Vernon  Ladies'  Association  of  the  Union,  for  the  pur« 
chase  of  Mount  Vernon  Mansion  and  surrounding  buildings  and 
the  tomb  and  202  acres  of  land;  recorded  in  Fairfax  County,  April 
6,  1858. 

XVI.— rW.  A.  Taylor,  Commissioner,  and  the  heirs  of  John 
Augustine  Washington  to  the  Mount  Vernon  Ladies'  Association 
of  the  Union,  deed  confirming  above  contract,  November  12,  1868, 
recorded  in  Fairfax  County. 

XVII. — Two  simultaneous  deeds,  Lawrence  Washington  and 
wife  to  Jay  Gould,  and  Jay  Gould  and  wife  to  the  Mount  Vernon 
Ladies'  Association  of  the  Union,  thirty-three  and  one-half  acres 
northeast  of  the  mansion,  July  23,  1887;  recorded  in  Fairfax 
County. 

XVIII. — Christian  Heurich  and  wife  to  the  Mount  Vernon 
Ladies'  Association  of  the  Union,  deed  for  two  acres  on  the  south- 
west side  of  their  original  tract,  November  13,  1893;  recorded  in 
Fairfax  County. 


APPENDIX  B 

TABLE  OF  GENERAL  WASHINGTON'S  VISITS  TO  MOUNT  VERNON 
WHILE  PRESIDENT 

Dates  and  duration  of  General  Washington's  visits  to  Mount 
Vernon  during  his  two  terms  as  President  of  the  United  States, 
April  30,  1789  to  March  4,  1797. 

(The  dates  hi  italics  are  estimated  from  relative  evidence  hi 
letters,  diary,  newspapers,  etc.,  in  the  absence  of  direct  evidence 
of  the  exact  date,  from  which  they  are  believed  to  be  not  more 
than  one  day  removed.) 


1789,  April 

1790,  Sept. 
Nov. 

1791, 


1(5. 
11. 

22. 
March  30 . 


April 
June 
June 
Sept. 
Oct. 

1792,  May 
May 
July 
Oct. 

1793,  April 
April 
June 
July 
Sept. 
Oct. 

1794,  June 
July 

1795,  April 
April 
July 
Aug. 
Sept. 
Oct. 

1796,  June 
Aug. 
Sept. 
Oct. 

1797,  March 


7. 
12. 
27. 
20. 
17. 
15. 
24. 
16. 

8. 

1. 
13. 
27. 

6. 
14. 
28. 
22. 

3. 
19. 
26. 
20. 

6. 
13. 
12. 
20. 
17. 
23. 
26. 
15. 


Left  for  New  York. 
Arrived  at  Mount  Vernon. 
Left  for  Philadelphia.     71  days. 
Arrived  at  Mount  Vernon. 
Left  on  Southern  Tour.     8  days. 
Arrived  at  Mount  Vernon. 
Left  for  Philadelphia.     15  days. 
Arrived  at  Mount  Vernon. 
Left  for  Philadelphia.     27  days. 
Arrived  at  Mount  Vernon. 
Left  for  Philadelphia.     9  days. 
Arrived  at  Mount  Vernon. 
Left  for  Philadelphia.     84  days. 
Arrived  at  Mount  Vernon. 
Left  for  Philadelphia.     12  days. 
Arrived  at  Mount  Vernon. 
Left  for  Philadelphia.    9  days. 
Arrived  at  Mount  Vernon. 
Left  for  Philadelphia.     44  days. 
Arrived  at  Mount  Vernon. 
Left  for  Philadelphia.     11  days. 
Arrived  at  Mount  Vernon. 
Left  for  Philadelphia.     7  days. 
Arrived  at  Mount  Vernon. 
Left  for  Philadelphia.     17  days. 
Arrived  at  Mount  Vernon. 
Left  for  Philadelphia.     29  days. 
Arrived  at  Mount  Vernon. 
Left  for  Philadelphia.     58  days. 
Arrived  at  Mount  Vernon. 
Left  for  Philadelphia.     33  days. 
Arrived  at  Mount  Vernon. 

283 


APPENDIX  C 

TABLES  OF  THOSE  BORN,  MARRIED,  AND  BURIED  AT  MOUNT 

VERNON 
BORN  IN  MOUNT  VERNON  MANSION 

To  Lawrence  and  Anne  (Fairfax)  Washington,  four  children, 
born  between  1743  and  1751  inclusive.  Lawrence  mentions 
his  three  deceased  children  and  his  surviving  daughter,  Sarah,  in 
his  will. 

To  George  Augustine  and  Frances  (Bassett)  Washington,  four 
children  born  between  1787  and  1791  inclusive,  while  he  resided 
at  Mount  Vernon  in  charge  of  the  estate  during  his  uncle's  absence 
at  the  seat  of  government  as  President.  (Welles*  "History  and 
Geneology  of  the  Washington  Family,"  page  187.) 

To  Lawrence  and  Nellie  (Custis)  Lewis,  two  children.  Wash- 
ington records  in  his  diary  the  birth  of  the  first,  December  1,  1799. 
The  second  was  born  "about  1801"  while  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Lewis 
made  their  home  in  the  mansion  with  Mrs.  Lewis'  widowed  grand- 
mother, Mrs.  Martha  Washington. 

To  John  Augustine  and  Eleanor  Love  (Selden)  Washington, 
six  children  born  between  1844  and  1858  inclusive.  Welles  in 
his  "History  of  the  Washington  Family"  records,  pages  255  and 
256,  the  births  of  seven  children.  Lawrence  Washington,  one  of 
these  and  the  last  surviving  male  child  born  in  Mount  Vernon 
Mansion,  confirms  Welles  except  as  to  Eliza,  who  was  not  born 
there. 

MARRIED   IN   MOUNT   VERNON   MANSION 

George  Augustine  Washington,  nephew  of  George  Washington, 
to  Frances  Bassett,  niece  of  Mrs.  George  Washington,  October 
15,  1785.  Recorded  by  General  Washington  in  his  diary  under 
that  date. 

Lawrence  Lewis,  nephew  of  George  Washington,  and  Eleanor 
Parke  Custis,  granddaughter  of  Mrs.  George  Washington,  February 
22,  1799.  Recorded  by  General  Washington  in  his  diary  under 
that  date. 

Noblet  Herbert  to  Mary  Lee  Washington,  granddaughter  of 
General  Washington's  brother,  John  Augustine  Washington,  1819. 

284 


APPENDIX  285 

(Welles*  "History  and  Geneology  of  the  Washington  Family," 
page  216.) 

BURIED   AT   MOUNT  VERNON 

Lawrence  Washington,  who  died  at  Mount  Vernon,  1752,  and 
his  three  children,  who  died  at  Mount  Vernon  before  this  date, 
and  were  buried  in  the  first  or  old  vault  as  soon  as  it  was  completed 
by  George  Washington. 

Sarah  Washington,  infant  daughter  of  Lawrence  and  Anne 
Washington,  died  at  Mount  Vernon  hi  1752  and  was  buried  in 
the  first  vault. 

Martha  Parke  Custis,  daughter  of  Mrs.  George  Washington, 
died  at  Mount  Vernon,  June  19,  1773,  and  was  buried  in  the  first 
vault. 

George  Washington,  died  at  Mount  Vernon,  December  14,  1799, 
and  was  buried  in  the  first  vault.  Reentombed  1831  in  the 
second  or  new  vault. 

Daughter  of  Mr.  &  Mrs.  T.  Peter,  age  five,  died  August,  1800, 
at  Georgetown,  D.  C.,  and  interred  at  Mount  Vernon,  September 
1,  1800.  (Diary  of  Mrs.  Thornton,  in  "Records  of  Columbia  His- 
torical Society,"  volume  10,  page  186.) 

Martha  Washington,  wife  of  George  Washington,  died  at  Mount 
Vernon,  May  22,  1802,  and  was  buried  in  the  first  vault.  Re- 
entombed  in  the  new  vault  in  1831. 

William  Augustine  Washington,  nephew  of  George  Washington, 
and  one  of  the  executors  of  his  will,  died  at  Georgetown,  D.  C., 
October,  1810,  and  "was  buried  at  Mount  Vernon-."  (Welles* 
"Pedigree  and  History  of  the  Washington  Family,"  page  174.) 

Bushrod  Washington,  nephew  of  George  Washington,  executor 
of  his  will  and  heir  to  Mount  Vernon,  died  in  Philadelphia,  Novem- 
ber 26, 1829.  His  remains  are  in  the  second  or  new  vault.  (Diary 
of  John  Augustine  Washington,  September  10, 1855.) 

Ann  Washington,  wife  of  Bushrod  Washington  above,  died  a 
few  days  after  her  husband,  November,  1829.  Her  remains  are 
in  the  new  vault.  (Diary  of  John  Augustine  Washington,  Septem- 
ber 10, 1810.) 

Bushrod  Washington,  fourth  child  of  William  Augustine  Wash- 
ington above,  "died  at  Mount  Zephyr,  in  1830,  and  was  interred 
in  the  vault  at  Mount  Vernon."  (Welles'  "Washington  Family," 
page  196.)  Not  mentioned  in  John  Augustine  Washington's 
diary. 

Ann  Aylette  Washington,  daughter  of  William  Augustine  Wash- 
ington, was  "born  at  Haywood,  Westmoreland  County,  Virginia, 
about  1787.  Died  and  was  buried  at  Mount  Vernon."  (Welles' 


286  APPENDIX 

Washington  Family,"  page  196.)  Not  mentioned  in  John  Augus- 
tine Washington's  diary. 

John  Augustine  Washington,  grand-nephew  of  the  General, 
died  at  Mount  Vernon  in  June,  1832,  and  his  remains  are  in  the 
new  vault.  (Diary  of  his  son,  John  Augustine  Washington, 
September  10,  1855.) 

Lawrence  Lewis,  nephew  of  the  General,  died  November  20, 
1839,  and  his  remains  are  in  the  new  vault.  (Diary  of  John 
Augustine  Washington,  September  10, 1855.) 

A  Child  of  the  Reverend  W.  P.  C.  Johnson,  placed  in  the  new 
vault,  April  16,  1842.  (Diary  of  John  Augustine  Washington, 
April  16,  1842.) 

Mrs.  M.  E.  A.  Conrad,  daughter  of  Lawrence  and  Eleanor  Custis 
Lewis,  died  September  21,  1839,  at  Pass  Christian,  Mississippi. 
Her  body  "and  that  of  her  child  were  buried  near  the  new  vault," 
July  10,  1843.  (Diary  of  John  Augustine  Washington,  July  10, 
1843.) 

Eleanor  Parke  Custis  Lewis,  granddaughter  of  Mrs.  George 
Washington,  died  at  Audley  in  Clarke  County,  Virginia,  July 
13,  1852.  Buried  outside  the  new  vault  beside  her  daughter 
and  granddaughter.  A  marble  shaft  marks  the  spot. 

Mary  Lee  Washington  Herbert  died  1852  and  her  remains 
were  placed  in  the  new  vault.  (Diary  of  John  Augustine  Wash- 
ington, September  10,  1855.) 

Jane  C.  Washington,  wife  of  John  Augustine  Washington  who 
died  at  Mount  Vernon  in  1832,  and  mother  of  John  Augustine 
Washington  last  private  owner  of  Mount  Vernon,  died  at  Blakeley, 
Jefferson  County  (now  West  Virginia),  1855.  Her  body  was 
placed  in  the  new  vault  September  10,  1855,  after  which  none  other 
has  been  admitted.  (Diary  of  John  Augustine  Washington, 
September  10, 1855.) 


APPENDIX  D 


THE  REGENTS  AND  VICE-REGENTS  OF  THE  MOUNT  VERNON  LA- 
DIES' ASSOCIATION  OF  THE  UNION  SINCE  ITS  ORGANIZA- 
TION WITH  THE  DATES  OF  THEIR  APPOINTMENT 

Miss  ANN  PAMELA  CUNNINGHAM,  Regent,  1853-1873 
(Resigned,  1873;  Died,  May  1,  1875) 


VICE-REGENTS 


1858 


1  Mrs. 

2  Mrs. 

3  Mrs. 

4  Mrs. 

5  Mrs. 

6  Mrs. 

7  Mrs. 

8  Mrs. 

9  Miss 

10  Mrs. 

11  Mrs. 

12  Mrs. 

13  Mrs. 

14  Miss 

15  Mrs. 

16  Mrs. 

17  Mrs. 

18  Mrs. 

19  Mrs. 

20  Mrs. 

21  Mrs. 

22  Mrs. 
Mrs. 


Anna  C.  O.  Ritchie    . 
Alice  H.  Dickinson     . 
Philoclea  E.  Eve  .      .      . 
Octavia  Walton  LeVert  . 
Catharine  A.  MacWillie  . 
Margaretta  S.  Morse . 
Mary  Rutledge  Fogg . 
Elizabeth  M.  Walton 
Mary  Morris  Hamilton   . 
Louisa  I.  Greenough  . 
Abba  Isabella  Little  . 
Catharine  Willis  Murat  . 
Mary  Bootes  Goodrich    . 
Phebe  Ann  Ogden 

Alice  Key  Pendleton  . 

Abby  Wheaton  Chase 
Jane  Maria  Van  Antwerp 
Margaret  A.  Comegys 
Hannah  B.  Farnsworth    . 
Sarah  King  Hale  . 
Martha  Mitchell   . 
Rosa  V.  J.  Jeffreys     . 
Janet  M.  C.  Riggs,  Acting 


resigned 

1866 

Virginia 

resigned 

1859 

North  Carolina 

died 

1889 

Georgia 

died 

1877 

Alabama 

died 

1872 

Mississippi 

resigned 

1872 

Louisiana 

died 

1872 

Tennessee 

resigned 

1858 

Missouri 

resigned 

1866 

New  York 

resigned 

1865 

Massachusetts 

resigned 

1866 

Maine 

died 

1867 

Florida 

resigned 

1864 

Connecticut 

died 

1867 

New  Jersey 

(  resigned 

1863 

I         died 

1885 

Ohio 

died 

1892 

Rhode  Island 

died 

Iowa 

died 

1888 

Delaware 

died 

1879 

Michigan 

resigned 

1861 

New  Hampshire 

died 

1902 

Wisconsin 

died 

1894 

Kentucky 

Vice-Regent 

Dist.  of  Colum. 

23  Mrs.  Elizabeth  W.  Barry    . 
«4  Mrs.  Sarah  J.  Sibley     .      . 

25  Mrs.  Mary  P.  J.  Cutts.      . 

26  Miss  Lily  Lytle  Macalester 

27  Mrs.  Magdalen  G.  Blanding 

28  Mrs.  Harriet  B.  Fitch   . 


1859 


died  1883  Illinois 

died  1869  Minnesota 

resigned  1878  Vermont 

died  1891  Pennsylvania 

resigned  1884  California 

died  1880  Indiana 


288 


APPENDIX 


29  Mrs.  Sarah  H.  Johnson 

30  Mrs.  Letitia  Harper  Walker 

31  Mrs.  Ann  Lucas  Hunt  . 

32  Mrs.  Mary  Chestnut     . 

33  Mrs.  Margaret  J.  M.  Sweat 

34  Miss  Emily  L.  Harper  . 

35  Mrs.  Lucy  H.  Pickens  . 

36  Mrs.  M.  E.  Hickman    .      . 

37  Mrs.  M.  A.  Sterns    .      .      . 

38  Mrs.  Emily  R.  M.  Hewson 

39  Miss  Ella  Hutchins. 


40  Mrs.  Janet  M.  C.  Riggs      . 

41  Mrs.  Maria  Brooks. 

42  Mrs.  Matilda  W.  Emory    . 

43  Mrs.  Nancy  Wade  Halsted 

44  Mrs.  Nannie  C.  Yulee  . 

45  Mrs.  Susan  E.  J.  Hudson   . 

46  Mrs.  Ella  B.  Washington   . 

47  Mrs.  Betsy  C.  Mason    . 

48  Mrs.  A.  P.  Dillon     .      .      . 

49  Mrs.  C.  L.  Scott 


50  Mrs.  WUliam  Balfour    . 

51  Mrs.  Mary  T.  Barnes   . 

52  Mrs.  David  Urquehart. 

53  Miss  M.  E.  Maverick  . 


MRS.  LILY  M.  BERGHMAN,  Second  Regent 
(Made  Acting  Regent,  1873;  Regent,  June,  1874;  Died,  1891) 

1874 

54  Mrs/Emma  Reed  Ball Virginia 

55  Mrs.  Aaron  V.  Brown  .     .      .  died     1889    Tennessee 


died 

1866 

Arkansas 

died 

1908 

North  Carolina 

1860 

died 

1878 

Missouri 

died 

1867 

South  Carolina 

1866 

died 

1908 

Maine 

died 
died 

1891 
1899 

Maryland 
South  Carolina 

resigned 
resigned 
resigned 
resigned 

1874 
1873 

1872 
1872 

Nevada 
New  Hampshire 
Ohio 
Texas 

1867 

(  resigned 
•  I         died 
resigned 
.     resigned 

1868 
1871 
1876 
1873 

Dist.  of  Colum. 
New  York 
Dist.  of  Colum. 

1868 

died 
died 

1891 

1884 

New  Jersey 
Florida 

1870 

died 

1913 

Connecticut 

died 

1898 

West  Virginia 

1872 

died 
(  resigned 
•  I         died 
resigned 

1873 
1873 
1898 
1878 

Virginia 

Iowa 
Arkansas 

1873 

.     resigned 
died 

1875 
1912 

Mississippi 
Dist.  of  Colunic 

resigned 
resigned 

1876 
1873 

Louisiana 
Texas 

56  Mrs.  Lily  L.  Broadwell 

57  Mrs.  John  P.  Jones. 


1875 

.      .      died     1889    Ohio 

.     resigned    1876    Nevada 


APPENDIX  289 

1876 

58  Mrs.  Jennie  Meeker  Ward .      .      .      died     1910    Kansas 

59  Mrs.  Justine  Van  Rensselaer 

Townsend died     1912    New  York 

1878 

60  Mrs.  J.  Gregory  Smith .      .      .     resigned     1884     Vermont 

1879 

61  Miss  Alice  Longfellow Massachusetts 

62  Mrs.  Robert  Campbell  ....      died     1882    Missouri 

1880 

63  Mrs.  Ida  A.  Richardson      .      .      .      died     1910    Louisiana 

1882 

64  Mrs.  Ella  S.  Herbert     ....      died     1884    Alabama 

1885 

65  Mrs.  E.  B.  A.  Rathbone Michigan 

66  Mrs.  Mary  T.  Leiter     ....      died     1913  Illinois 

67  Mrs.  Janet  Dekay  King     .      .      .      died     1896  Vermont 

68  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Woodward.      .      .      died     1897  Kentucky 

1888 

69  Miss  Harriet  C.  Comegys Delaware 

70  Mrs.  Fannie  Gilchrist  Baker    .      .      died     1901     Florida 

1889 

71  Mrs.  Alice  Hill died     1908  Colorado 

72  Mrs.  Rebecca  B.  Flandrau .      .      .      died     1912  Minnesota 

73  Mrs.  Phoebe  A.  Hearst California 

1890 

74  Mrs.  A.  R.  Winder died     1906    New  Hampshire 

1891 

75  Mrs.  Georgia  Page  Wilder  .      .      .      died    1914    Georgia 

MBS.  JUSTINE  V.  R.  TOWNSEND,  Third  Regent 

(Elected  Temporary  Regent,  December,  1891;  Regent,  June,  189S; 

Died,  1912) 

1893 

76  Mrs.  Geo.  R.  Goldsborough    .  j  rCSlg^  \lf6    Maryland 

77  Mrs.  J.  Dundas  Lippincott      .      .      died  1894    Pennsylvania 

78  Miss  Mary  L.  Pendleton    .      .     resigned  1897    Ohio 

79  Mrs.  Philip  Schuyler     .      .      .     resigned  1894    New  York 

80  Mrs.  Christine  B.  Graham.  died  1915    Missouri 


290  APPENDIX 

81  Mrs.  Francis  S.  Conover     ....    died  1914    New  Jersey 

82  Mrs.  Mary  P.  Yeatman  Webb  ......     Tennessee 

1894 

83  Miss  Lelia  Herbert  .....      died     189?    Alabama 

1895 

.  -.«•      T>  i      .  TT  /-<i    i  i  resigned     1900 

84  Mrs.  Robert  H.  Clarkson    .        j       *died     19Q2    Nebraska 


85  Mrs.  William  Ames  .....      died     1904  Rhode  Island 

86  Miss  Amy  Townsend     ........  New  York 

1896 

87  Mrs.  Chas.  C.  Harrison       .......  Pennsylvania 

88  Mrs.  Thomas  S.  Maxey      .......  Texas 

1897 

89  Mrs.  James  E.  Campbell    .      .     resigned     1902  Ohio 

1900 

90  Mrs.  Robert  D.  Johnston  .......  Alabama 

91  Mrs.  C.  F.  Manderson  .......      „  Nebraska 

92  Mrs.  Eugene  Van  Rensselaer  ......  West  Virginia 

1901 

93  Mrs.  J.  J.  Pringle     .........  South  Carolina 

94  Mrs.  Wm.  F.  Barret      ........  Kentucky 

95  Mrs.  Chas.  Denby  .....      died     1906  Indiana 

1905 

96  Mrs.  Henry  W.  Rogers  ........  Maryland 

1907 

97  Mrs.  Frances  J.  Ricks  .      .     .     resigned     1914  Mississippi 

98  Mrs.  Lewis  Irwin     ......  died     1915  Ohio 

99  Mrs.  J.  Carter  Brown   ........  Rhode  Island 

100  Miss  Mary  F.  Failing    ........  Oregon 

101  Mrs.  Eliza  F.  Leary      ........  Washington 

1909 

102  Mrs.  A.  B.  Andrews      .....  died    1915  North  Carolina 

Miss  HABRIET  CLAYTON  COMEGYS,  Fourth  Regent 
(Elected  May,  1909) 

1911 

103  Mrs.  James  Gore  King  Richards  .....  Maine 

104  Miss  Mary  Evarts    .........  Vermont 

105  Mrs.  Antoine  Lentilhon  Foster  Delaware 


APPENDIX  291 

1912 

106  Miss  Annie  Ragan  King Louisiana 

107  Miss  Jane  A.  Riggs Dist.  of  Colum. 

1913 

108  Mrs.  Horace  Mann  Towner Iowa 

109  Mrs.  Thomas  P.  Denham       Florida 

1914 

110  Mrs.  Charles  E.  Furness Minnesota 

111  Mrs.  Louis  Hanks  Wisconsin 

112  Mrs.  Benjamin  D.  Walcott     .......  Indiana 

113  Miss  Harriet  L.  Huntress       New  Hampshire 

1915 

114  Miss  Annie  B.  Jennings Connecticut 

115  Mrs.  W.  H.  Bradford New  Jersey 

1916 

116  Mrs.  Anne  Shepley  Nagle Missouri 

117  Miss  Mary  Go  van  Billups Mississippi 

118  Mrs.  Harriet  Isham  Carpenter Illinois 

119  Mrs.  John  V.  Abrahams Kansas 


INDEX 


Abingdon,  122,  132 

Accotink,  97 

Acquia,  111 

Adam,  Mr.,  91 

Adams,  President  John,  199,234,241, 247 

Adams,  Sir  Thomas,  R.  N.,  91 

Addison,  Mr.,  91 

Addison's  Spectator,  28 

Agriculture,  Experimental,  80-83 

Alexander,  Mr.,  44,  95,  96 

Alexander,  George,  97 

Alexander,  Robert,  96,  97,  98,  122 

Alexander,  Philip,  98 

Alexandria,  vii,  31,  38,  39,  92,  94,  95, 
96,  97,  105,  122,  124,  133,  138,  166, 
172,  181,  185,  188,  189,  193,  194,  197, 
200,  208,  217,  220,  223,  224,  241,  244 

Alexandria  Jockey  Club,  99 

Alterations  in  Mount  Vernon  Mansion, 
125,  126,  127,  140,  141,  142,  149,  150, 
161,  204 

Ambler,  Edward,  46 

Amboy,  114 

Anderson,  James,  195 

Anderson,  Mrs.,  133 

Annapolis,  93,  102,  103,  114,  119,  121, 
122,  144,  173,  179,  208,  209 

Anthony,  Old,  the  Miller,  85 

Appleby  School,  13,  22 

Archer,  James,  262,  269 

Arlington,  Earl  of,  6 

Arlington  House,  16,  251,  274 

Arteignan,  Count  de  Cheiza  d',  173 

Assembly,  see  Burgesses 

Asses,  Maltese  and  Spanish,  174,  175 

Association,  Mount  Vernon  Ladies',  of 
theUnion,  13, 142, 250, 253, 258-9, 261, 
262,  265,  267,  274,  277,  282,  287-91 

Atheneum,  Boston,  274 

Attic,  or  Garrett,  56,  230,  238 

Audley,  250,  286 

Aylett,  Miss,  14 

Ayletts,  Wm.,  110 


Bache,  Mrs.,  59 
Bacon's  Rebellion,  6 


Ball,  Col.  Joseph,  10,  26,  27 
Ball,  Mary,  see  Mary  Washington 
Baltimore,  114,  200 
Baltimore,  Lord,  4 
Barbadoes,  33 
Barclay,  Mr.,  90 

Barn,  near  Mansion,  15,  22,  197 
on  Union  Farm,  154 
sixteen-sided,  on  Dogue  Run 

Farm,  196,  197 
on  Muddy  Hole  Farm,  197 
planned  for  River  Farm,  197 
Barney,  Captain,  181 
Bassett,  Colonel  Burwell,  98,  110,  111, 

112,  116,  133,  144,  171 
Bassett,  Mrs.,  101,  133 
Bassett,   Frances,   157,   158,   165,   168, 

171,  189,  193,  195,  197,  229,  284 
Bastille,  Key  of,  187,  213,  230,  260 
Bastille,  Sketch  of,  187,  213,  230 
Bastille,  Model  of,  in  stone,  213,  275 
Bath  Warm  Springs,  113 
Beaujolais,  210 
Bed,    in    which    General    Washington 

died,  275 

Beckwith's,  Mr.,  99 
Beekman,  Mr.,  152 
Bellair  (Maryland),  153 
Belle  Aire,  21,  37,  64,  92,  93 
Belmont  Bay,  64 
Belvoir,  12,  17,  18,  22,  26,  28,  30,  35, 

37,  39,  45,  55,  56,  64,  91,  93,  96,  117. 

142,  165,  204,  208,  244,  257 
Berghman,  Mrs.  Lily  M.,  263,  288 
Bermuda,  33,  34 

Bible,  Washington  family,  10,  275 
Binney,  Justice,  quoted,  242 
Birth-night  Balls,  166 
Bishop,  46-47,  48,  50,  51,  133,  143,  145, 

162,  163,  164,  189 
Blackburn,  Anne,  241,  285 
Blackburn,  Jane  Charlotte,  245-247, 251. 

252,  286 
Blackburn,    Major  Richard  Scott.   U. 

S.  A.,  245 
Blackburn,  Col.  Thomas,  236,  241 


293 


294 


INDEX 


Blakeley,  245,  246,  251,  286 

Blueskin,  170 

Bogg's  Race  Track,  99 

Boiling  Green,  The,  111 

Books,  70,  215,  231,  273,  274,  275 

Booths,  Mr.,  112 

Boston,  124,  125 

Boucher,  Capt.,  137 

Boucher,  Rev.  Jonathan,  91,  93,  103, 

114,  119,  122 
Bound  Brook,  114 
Boyd's  hole,  112 
Braddock,  General,  40,  42,  43,  45,  47, 

133 

Bramm,  Jacob  van,  32,  33,  39,  237 
Bread  and  Butter  Ball,  95 
Brehan,  Marquise  de,  172 
Bridges  Creek,  9,  10 
Brissot,  J.  B.,  170 
Bristol,  114 

Brooks,  Capt.  Christopher,  10 
"  Brown,  a  Mr.,"  90 
Brown,  Mr.,  91 
Brown,  David  Paul,  242 
Brown,  Doctor,  223 
Brown,  Miss  Kitty,  237 
Brunswick,  114 
Buchan,  Earl  of,  205,  227 
Buck  House,  112 
Buckey,  Thomas  W.,  253 
Bull  Run,  137 
Burgesses,  9,  19,  31,  48,  54,  55,  61,  62, 

63,  78,  95,  104,  105,  106,  107,  108, 

109,  110,  128 
Burlington,  114 
Burwell,  Colo.,  91 
Bushrod,  Mrs.,  91 
Butler,  Caleb,  9-10 
Butler,  Jane,  9,  10 
Byrd,  William,  42 

Cadwallader,  Mr.  and  Mrs.,  90 

Caesar,  236 

Calvert,  Benedict,  93,  114,  119-122 

Calvert,  Mrs.,  120 

Calvert/ Cecil,  Lord  Baltimore,  4 

Calvert,  Eleanor,  93,  119,  120,  121,  122, 

130,  132,  144,  207 
Calvert,  Leonard,  4 
Campball's,  Mrs.,  Ill 
Campbell,  Mrs.  Robert,  266 
Canes,  227,  231 
Carlyle,  John,  44,  95,  96,  97 
Carlyle,  Mrs.,  96 
Carlyle,  Sally,  96,  97 
Carroll,  Charles,  210 


Carter,  Councillor,  257 

Carthagena,  16,  22,  69,  206 

Gary,  Miss  (Mrs.  Geo.  Wm.  Fairfax's 

sister),  30 
Gary,  Mary,  46 
Cary,  Robert  &  Co.,  69,  123 
Cattle,  84 
Causey,  The,  110 
Cedar  Grove  on  Accotink,  93 
Cedar  Grove,  14, 17,  41 
Chamberlayne,  Mr.,  49,  133 
Chantille,  169 
Charity,  87,  135 
Charlottesville,  139 
Charles  II,  King,  4,  6,  7,  8 
Charlestown,  W.  Va.,  260 
Chastellux  de,  quoted  90,  143 
Cheere,  William,  72 
Chesapeake  Bay,  4,  13,  138,  178,  181 
Chester,  114 
Chestertown,  114 
Chew's  Ball,  Mrs.,  96 
Chichester,  Mr.,  99,  208 
Christ  Church,  Alexandria,  95,  108,  168, 

224,  244  (see  Fairfax  Parish) 
Christian,  Mr.,  dancing  master,  101, 102 
Cincinnati,  Society  of,  148,  237 
Civil  War,  15,  262, 
Claibornes,  112 
Clarke  County,  250,  286 
Clay,  Henry,  249 
Clinton,  Governor,  148,  151 
Cockburn,  Martin,  of  Springfield,  93 
Colchester,  64,  105 
Colonization  Society,  American,  243 
Columbia   Historical   Society   Records, 

quoted,  285 
Comegys,   Miss  Harriet   C.,   263,   289, 

290 

Conde,  Prince  de,  169 
Conrad,  Mrs.  Angela  Lewis,  see  Angela 

Lewis 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,  179- 

181 

Conway,  Moncure  D.,  quoted,  16,  20 
Corbin,  Miss,  97 
Cornerstone,  24 
Cornwallis,  142,  155 
Craik,  Dr.  James,  92,  96,  113,  144,  148, 

193,  221,  223,  227,  275 
Craik,  William,  148, 
Cully,  60 

Culpepper  County,  31 
Culpepper,  Lord,  6,  10,  12,  275,  281 
Cunningham,   Ann   Pamela,   258,   262, 

263,  287 


INDEX 


295 


Cunningham,  Mrs.,  mother  of  Ann  Pa- 
mela Cunningham,  257-258 

Custis,  Daniel  Parke,  52,  62,  232 

Custis,  Eleanor  Parke  ("Nelly,"  Mrs. 
Lewis),  132,  133,  113,  144,  156,  164, 
171,  187,  190,  200,  202,  205,  207,  208, 
209,  210,  213,  217,  220,  221,  229, 
234,  235,  236,  237,  250,  254,  273,  274, 
276,  284,  286 

Custis,  Elizabeth  Parke  (Mrs.  Law), 
132,  143,  188,  207,  208,  218,  238,  254, 
273 

Custis,     George     Washington     Parke, 

50,  60,  62,  67,  73,  74,  133,  143,  144, 
156,  164,  171,  175,  187,  190,  207,  208, 
209,  221,  233,  234,  236,  237,  248,  254, 
273,^274 

Custis,  John  Parke,  52,  62,  63,  66,  70, 

51,  93,  98,  100,   101,   102,   103,   109, 
114,  115,  119,  120,  121,  122,  130,  132, 
143,  144,  156,  164,  170,  208,  229,  250 

Custis,  Martha  Parke  (daughter  Martha 
Custis  Washington),  52,  63,  66,  70, 
91,  101,  102,  113,  115,  116,  117,  122, 
132,  156,  170,  229,  285 

Custis,  Martha  Parke  (Mrs.  Peter), 
granddaughter  of  Martha  Custis 
Washington,  132,  143,  207,  208,  218, 
238,  254,  273,  285 

Custis,  Widow  Martha,  see  Martha 
Washington 

Daguerr'j,  63 

Dalton,  Captain,  87 

Dalton,  Mrs.,  and  daughter,  90 

Dancing,  101 

Dandridge,  Betsy,  110 

Dandridge,  Martha,  see  Martha  Wash- 
ington 

Dandridge,  Mrs.,  mother  of  Martha 
Washington,  117. 

Davis,  Mr.,  112 

Davis,  Rev.  Mr.,  224,  234 

Dawson's,  Mrs.,  Ill 

Deed,  original,  to  Mount  Vernon,  6-7, 
275,  281 

Deer  Park,  150,  152,  153,  197,  198,  214, 
266 

Democratic  Review,  quoted,  191 

Dent,  Elizabeth,  46 

Dick,  Doctor,  223 

Difficult  Run,  218 

Digges  Family,  4,  18,  91,  92,  93,  179, 
243,  257 

Dinwiddie,  Governor,  38,  39,  40 

Distillery,  85 


Dodge,  Harrison  Howell,  262,  270 
Doeg  (Dogue)  Indians,  3 
Dogs,  97,  98,  99,  112,  174,  175 
Dogue  Creek,  6,  12,  13,  15,  18,  21.  36, 

48,  77,  78,  91,  94,  234,  250,  254 
Dogue  Run,  10,  78,  106 
Dogue  Run  Farm,  78,  196,  197 
Dove,  The,  4 
Duelling,  100 
Dulaney,  Lloyd,  99,  113 
Dumfries,  111 

Dunmore,  Lord,  117,  136,  137,  139 
Durham,  County  of,  7 

Eagle's  Nest,  219 

Eden,  Governor,  93 

Elisabeth  Town,  114 

Eltham,  110,  111,  144 

Epsewasson,  220 

Evans,  Joshua,  101 

Everett,  Hon.  Edward,  quoted,  vii,  260 

Ewell,  Fannie,  21 

Ewell  family,  64,  92 

Exeter,  246 

Experimental  agriculture,  80-83 

Fairfax,  Anne,  17,  18,  19,  33,  35,  36, 

46  47   68  284 
Fairfax,  'Rev.  Bryan,  18,  96,  165,  166, 

221,  222,  227 
Fairfax  County,  3,  7,  35,  36,  44,  55, 

99,  109,  123,  124,  188,  219,  274,  281, 

282 
Fairfax,   George   William,   30,   44,   46, 

55,  56,  90,  91,  97,  105,  106,  117,  118, 

119,  142,  153,  165,  204 
Fairfax  Parish,  106 
Fairfax  Resolutions,  124 
Fairfax,  Sally,  46 
Fairfax,     SaJly     Gary     (Mrs.     George 

William),  46,  97,  117,  204,  208 
Fairfax,  Thomas,  Lord,  12,  18,  26,  28, 

29,  31,  90,  257 
Fairfax,  William,  12,  17,  26,  28,  45,  48, 

105 

Farewell  Address,  187,  190 
Farms,  Five,  78,  150,  154,  155,  189,  219 
Fauntleroy,  Betsy,  38 
Fauntleroy,  Wm.,  Sr.,  38 
Fauquier  County,  138 
Federal  City,  The,  see  Washington  City 
Federalist,  The,  180, 
Federalist,  The,  ship,  180-181 
Ferry  Farm,  on  the  Rappahannock,  14, 

21,  62,  64 
Fire  Protection,  272-273 


296 


INDEX 


Fires,  264,  272 

Fish,  of  the  Potomac,  5,  78,  86,  97,  112 

Fitch,  Jno.,  172 

Fithian,  Philip  Vickers,  108 

Fitzhugh,  Henry,  219 

Fleming,  Major,  93 

Ford,  Worthington,  59 

Four  Mile  Run,  86,  218 

Fox-hunting,  28,  96,  97,  111,  112,  160, 

175,  208 
Franklin,  Benjamin,  59,  171,  227,  228, 

229 

Frazer's  Ferry,  112 
Frederick  County,  55,  109 
Fredericksburg,  14,  17,  20,  31,  37,  39, 

41,  64,  110,  111,  129,  139,  140,  145, 

148 

French,  Daniel,  108 
Frestel,  M.,  200,  209 
Frost,  Amariah,  152,  210 
Fulton,  Robert,  172 

Gadsby's  City  Hotel,  220 

Gage,  General,  124 

Gardens,  150,  152,  153,  264 

Garrett,  see  Attic 

Gates,  Horatio,  128,  139 

Georgetown,  D.  C.,  vii,  18,  207,  218, 

285 

Georgetown  on  Sassafras,  114 
Glassford,  Mr.,  R.  N.,  91 
Globe,  The,  112 
Goldsbury,  Mr.,  90 
Gooch,  Governor,  52 
Gordon,  R.  N.,  Capt.,  243 
Gould,  Jay,  267,  282 
Graham,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Macauley,  172 
Grapes,  152 
Gray's  Hill,  85,  220 
Grayson  family,  64 
Grayson,  Rev.  Mr.,  158 
Grayson,  William,  92,  93,  127 
Green,  Dr.  Charles,  48,  93,  101 
Green,  Thomas,  197 
Greenaway  Court,  29,  257 
Greene,  General,  229 
Greenhouse,  16,  264,  272 
Gregory,  Mrs.  Mildred,  10,  11,  281 
Gregory,  Roger,  11,  281 
Griffith,  Doctor,  158 
Grymes,  Lucy,  46 
Gunston  Hall,  18,  37,  92,  93,  101,  124, 

208 

Hale,  Edward  Everett,  233 
Hamilton,  Alexander,  180,  190 


Hamilton,  Stanislaus  Murray,  94 

Hardwick,  Mr.,  90 

Harpsichord,  Nelly  Custis',  276 

Harrison,  Benjamin,  179,  180 

Hayfield,  157 

Haywood,  285 

Haywoods,  Mr.,  122 

Hearst,  Mrs.  Phoebe  A.,  267,  289 

Henderson,  Col.  Alexander,  93 

Henry,  Patrick,  125,  128,  179,  180 

Herbert,  Mr.,  91 

Herbert  family,  95 

Herbert,  John,  222 

Herbert,  Noblet,  245 

Herbert,   Mrs.  Noblet,  see  Mary  Lee 

Washington 

Herbert,  Upton  H.,  261,  262 
Heurich,  Christian,  267,  282 
Hobs  hole,  112 
Hobson,  Richmond  P.,  137 
Hollingsworth,  J.  M.,  262 
Hollin  Hall,  92,  257 
Hooes  Ferry,  113 
Hope  Park,  207 
Hopkinson,  Judge,  242 
Horses,  93,  155, 169,  170, 191,  211-2,  213 
Hospitality,  89-104,  135,  173,  189,  192- 

193,  207,    210,    212,   218,   219,   243, 

255,  256 

Houdon,  M.,  171-172,  231,  260,  274 
Hubbards,  Mr.  Benja.,  110,  111 
Humphreys,  Col.  David,  144,  161,  162, 

181,  185 

Hunter,  John,  167 
Hunting  Creek,  Little,  6,  10,  11,  12,  14. 

18,  21,  36,  77,  78,  106,  235,  254,  281 
Hunting  Creek,  Great,  166,  221 

Ice  House,  266 
Industry,  The,  33 
Irving,  Washington,  59 

James  River,  4,  42,  110 

Jay,  John,  180 

Jeffers,  George  H.,  281 

Jefferson  County,  Va.,  and  W.  Va.,  245, 

246,  251,  282,  286 
Jefferson,  Thomas,  171,  180 
Jenifer,  Daniel,  of  St.  Thomas,  93,  97, 

128 

Johnson,  Rev.  W.  P.  C.,  249,  251 
Johnson,  child  of  Rev.  W.  P.  C.,  286 
Johnston,  Mr.,  R.  N.,  91 
Johnston,  Mr.  George,  93 
Jones,  Rev.  Mr.,  171 


INDEX 


297 


Kanawha,  148 

Kansas  children  restore  Quarters,  272 

Kenmore  House,  41,  64,  111,  140 

Kester,  Vaughan,  52 

King  George  County,  281 

King  William  County,  112 

King  William  Court  House,  110 

King'sJCollege,  New  York,  103, 114, 119 

Kingshighway,  14,  18 

Knight,  Humphrey,  55,  58 

Knox,  General,  147.  177.  182,  230 

Knox,  Mrs.,  209 

L,  Captain,  191 

LaFayette,  General  Marquis  de,  143, 
146,  170,  173-174,  175, 177, 182, 187, 
209,  210,  227,  228,  229,  244,  260,  275 

LaFayette,  Marchioness  de,  147, 170, 229 

LaFayette,  George  Washington,  170, 
200,  209,  229,  244 

Lancaster,  114 

Lanphier,  Going,  126,  127,  140,  141 

Lantern,  Iron,  in  hall,  16,  275 

Latrobe,  Benjamin  H.,  210 

Laurie,  Doctor,  96,  101 

Law,  Mr.,  213,  229,  236 

Law,  Mrs.,  see  Elisabeth  Parke  Custis 

Lear,  Tobias,  165,  189,  200,  203,  205, 

219,  222,  223,  227,  231,  235,  236 
Lear,  Mrs.,  see  Frances  Bassett 
Ledger,  New  York,  260 

Lee,  Anne  Fairfax,  see  Anne  Fairfax 

Lee,  Billy,  143,  145,  163,  164 

Lee,  Charles,  128 

Lee,  Charles,  son  of  George  Lee,  36 

Lee,  George,  36,  47 

Lee,  Henry,  110 

Lee,  Mrs.  Henry,  46 

Lee,  General  "Light  horse  Harry,"  46, 

180,  211-212,  219 
Lee,  Richard,  36 

Lee,  Richard  Henry,  168-169,  180 
Lee,  General  Robert  E.,  260 
Lewis,  Angela,  234,  250,  283,  286 
Lewis,  Betty,  see  Elisabeth  Washington 
Lewis,  Col.  Fielding,  98, 110,  111,  112,140 
Lewis,  George,  227,  236 
Lewis,  Howell,  194,  222,  236 
Lewis,  John,  90,  236 
Lewis,  Lawrence,   194,   195,   217,  218, 

220,  221,  234,  235,  236,  248,  249,  250, 
251,  252,  284,  286 

Lewis,    Mrs.    Lawrence,    see    Eleanor 

Parke  Custis 
Lewis,  Lorenzo,  249 
Lewis,  Miss,  145 


Lewis,  Robert,  236 

Liberia,  243 

Library,  see  Books 

Littlepage,  Captain,  172 

Lloyd,  Col.,  90 

Lodge,  Henry  Cabot,  59,  177 

Lonsdale,  Lord,  271 

Lossing,  Benson  J.,  quoted,  16,  59 

Lotteries,  99,  100 

Loudoun  County,  138,  246 

Louisiana,   school  children   of,   restore 

summer  house,  266 
Luzerne,  Chevalier  de  la,  152,  172 

Madison,  James,  180,  187,  206,  230,  233 

Magnolia,  83,  169 

Magowan,  Rev.  Walter,  91,  100,  102 

Managers  of  Mount  Vernon,  194-195 

Manley,  H.,  98 

Manly,  Miss,  97 

Mansfield,  Lord,  242 

Mansion  House  Farm,  78 

Marlboro,  93 

Marshall  Hall,  77,  93 

Marshall,  John,  180,  210,  241 

Marshall,  Thomas  Hanson,  77,  93,  94 

Mason's  Neck,  18 

Mason,  George,   18,  37,  92,   100,   105, 

106,  124,  125,  127,  137,  180,  208 
Mason,  Thomson,  92,  257 
Masonic,  37,  38,  224,  231,  267 
Massey,  Rev.  Lee,  93 
McCarty,  Capt.  Daniel,  93,  98,  208 
McHenry,  James,  203,  214 
McHenry,  Mrs.,  214 
Meade,  Bishop,  59,  244 
Mercer,  240 
Michaux,  Andre,  173 
Michigan  restored  Old  Tomb,  £66 
Mike,  96 

Mill,  14,  15,  19,  35,  36,  85,  112,  220 
Minton,  Mrs.  Eliza,  12,  17 
Monongahela,  151 
Monroe,  James,  180 
Monticello,  139 
Montpensier,  210 
Morris,  Mr.,  207 
Morris,  Gouverneur,  172 
Morse,  Jedediuh,  173 
Mosson,  Rev.,  Rector  of  St.  Peter's,  59 
Mount  Any,  Maryland,  93,  114,  119, 

121,  122 

Mount  Eagle,  165,  221 
"Mount  Vernon  Parish,"  21 
Mount    Vernon — look     under    special 

topics  relating  thereto. 


298 


INDEX 


Mount  Zephyr,  251,  285 
Moustier,  Comte  de,  172 
Muddy  Hole  Farm,  78 
Muir,  Mr.,  91 
Muse,  Adjutant,  32,  33 

Navy,  U.  S.,  orders  when  ships  pass 
Mount  Vernon,  277 

Neabsco,  92 

Neckar,  bust  of,  187 

Neighborhood,  91,  208 

Neil,  Mrs.,  40 

Nelson,  General  Washington's  war- 
horse,  155,  170 

Nelson,  Thomas,  179 

Newark,  114 

Newcastle,  114 

Newenham,  Sir  Edward,  176 

New  Kent,  51,  52,  77,  112,  133,  144,  221 

New  York,  46,  103,  113,  114,  152,  183, 
184,  185,  187,  283 

Nicholas,  Miss,  97 

Niemcewitz,  Kosciusko's  friend,  210, 
212-213,  275 

Nomini,  112 

Nomini  Hall,  257 

Non-importation  Resolves,  123 

Norris,  Mr.,  R.  N.,  91 

North  Lodge  Gate,  267,  268 

Odin,  7 

Ogle,  Mr.,  153 

Ohio,  38,  39,  45,  53,  113,  148 

Ohio  Company,  19,  31 

O'Neill,  Rev.  Charles,  244 

Orders  on  London,  69-73,  123 

Orleans,  Due  d',  210 

Orme,  Robert,  40,  41,  42 

Outbuildings,  56,  57,  67,  88,  127,  153, 

154 
Oven,  86 

Pamunkey  River,  48,  53,  59 

Parkers  Ordinary,  110 

Patterson,  John,  55,  56 

Payne,  Mr.  Edwd.,  99 

Peake,  87,  91,  99 

Peale,  Charles  Willson,  114-115 

Pearce,  William,  194,  195,  197,  198 

Pendleton,  Edmond,  125,  128,  180,  225, 

226 

Pennsylvania,  University  of,  209 
Perin,  Mr.,  171 

Perry,  Commodore  O.  H.,  U.  S.  N.,  244 
Peter,  Mr.  Thomas,  236,  285 
Peter,  Mrs.  (see  Martha  Parke  Custis) 


Peter  Porcupine's  Gazette,  206 
Philadelphia,   114,   123,  125,   129,  142, 

148,  156,  179,  188,  190,  210,  218,  225, 

226,  234,  237,  240,  243,  245,  248,  274, 

283,  285 

Philipse,  Mary,  46 
Pickering,  Mr.,  241 
Piercey's  Independent  Blues,  220 
Pilgrim,  The  sloop,  152 
Pinckney,  Charles  Cotesworth,  181 
Pine,  Robert  Edge,  170-171 
Piper,  Mr.,  91,  97 
Piscataway,  4,  7,  15,  18,  114,  281 
Pohick  Church,  21,  48,  64,  93,  99,  105, 

106,  107,  108,  166,  171,  244 
Poole,  William,  55,  57-58 
Pope,  Ann,  9 
Pope's  Creek,  112 
Porter,  Commodore  David,  U.  S.  N., 

244 

Portico  floor,  149-150,  270-271 
Portraits,  114,  115,  170,  171,  172,  205, 

211,   217,   228,   229,   230,   231,   237, 

238,  274 

Port  Tobacco,  77,  113,  223 
Posey,  Capt.  John,  77,  94,  99 
Postal  facilities,  135-6 
Potomac  River,  vii,  3,  4,  5,  6,  7,  9,  10, 

11,  12,  13,  14,  15,  16,  17,  18,  22,  63, 

64,  77,  86,  93,  101,  114,  117,  122,  133, 

136,  137,  138,  165,  168,  169,  177,  178, 

181,  229,  243,  250,  257,  268,  276,  277, 

281 

Powell,  Mrs.,  206 
Powell's,  Mrs.,  59 
Power,  Mr.,  90 
Priestley,  Doctor,  206,  230 
Prince  William  County,  7,  35,  128,  137, 

138,  241 

Princeton,  114,  209 
"Prodigal  Judge,  The,"  52 
Pryor,  Mrs.,  quoted,  60 

Quarters,  272 

Ramsay,  Miss  Betsey,  96,  110 
Ramsay,  Wm.,  95,  96,  98 
Ramsay's,  The  Widow,  114 
Ravensworth,  207,  219,  274 
Regents  and  Vice-Regents  of  the  Mount 

Vernon  Ladies'  Association,  287-29! 
Religious  tolerance  in  Virginia,  19 
Restorations,  264-277 
Rhodes,  Amphilis,  8 
Richmond,  123,  128,  149,  172,  173,  241, 

2S1 


INDEX 


299 


Richmore,  Mr.,  R.  N.,  91 

Rickett's  Circus,  199 

Riggs,  George  W.,  262 

Rippon  Lodge,  241,  244 

Rittenhouse,  David,  229,  276 

River  Farm,  78,  92,  197,  235 

Robinson,  Mr.  Speaker,  109 

Rochambeau,  General  Count  de,  143 

Rockhall,  114 

Rogers,  C.  Mellon,  231  note 

Roof,  269-270 

Roots's,  112 

Rover's  Delight,  94 

Roys  Ordinary,  111 

Ruffins  Ferry,  111 

Rumney,  Doctor,  91,  96,  98,  101,  110 

St.  Bees  Head,  271 

St.  Paul's  Church,  112 

St.  Peter's  Church,  New  Kent,  52,  59 

Sartell,  Mr.,  R.  N.,  91 

Saunders,  Captain,  of  the  Industry,  33 

Sears,  127,  140 

Sea  wall,  267 

Serpentine  Road,  150,  151 

Shaw,  William,  165,  168,  169,  171 

Sheep,  84 

Shingles,  269-270 

Six-chimney  House,  52,  61,  62,  68 

Slades,  114 

Slaves,  232-234 

Sleepy  Creek,  90 

Smith,  John,  visits  upper  Potomac,  4 

quoted,  5,  28 

Smith,  Col.  Wm.,  144,  161-164 
Smith,  Mr.,  The  Parson,  112 
Snow,  Gideon,  164 
Society  Hill,  268 
South,  Tour  of  the,  187,  283 
"Southern  Matron,  The,"  258 
Spain,  King  of,  175 
Spearing,  Ann,  46 
Spencer,  Lord,  8 
Spencer,  Madam  Francis,  11 
Spencer,  Nicholas,  7,  10,  11,  275,  281 
Spinning  output,  67 
Stafford  County,  7,  11,  219,  281 
Stamp  Act,  122 
"Stars  &  Stripes,"  8 
Stedlar,  Mr.,  96 

Sterling's,  Lord,  at  Raskin's  Ridge,  114 
Story,  Justice,  quoted,  242 
Strickland,  249 
Struthers,  John,  248 
Stuart,  Dr.  David,  171,  227,  236 
Stuart,  Capt.  Walter,  96 


Stuart,  Gilbert,  211 
Stuart,  Miss,  158 
Sulgrave  Manor,  7,  8 
Summer-house,  266 
Sun-dial,  155 
Surveyor's  tripod,  31 
Buttons,  114 
Swords,  227,  231,  275 

Table  of  Washington's  visits  to  Mount 

Vernon  while  President,  279,  283 
Table    of    those    Born,    Married,  and 

Buried  at  Mount  Vernon,  279, 284-286 
Tarleton  Raid,  139 
Terrett,  Miss,  90 

Taylor,  Wm.  A.,  Commissioner,  282 
Texas,  citizens  of,  restore  North  Lodge 

Gates,  267 

Thackeray,  W.  M.,  quoted,  39,  100 
Thomas  Collyer,  Steamer,  261 
Thompson,  Charles,  183,  185 
Thompson,  Rev.  Mr.,  171 
Thornton,  George,  90 
Thornton,  Diary  of  Mrs.  Wm.,  quoted, 

285 

Thornton,  Thatcher,  268 
Tilghman,  Mr.,  91,  99 
Title  to  Mount  Vernon,  6,  7,  10,  11,  35, 

36,  226,  245,  246-247,  259,  260,  267, 

279,  281-282 
Tods  Bridge,  111 
Tom,  96 
Tomb,  first  or  old,  34, 223,  225, 234,  236, 

244,  245,  247,  248,  266,  268,  285,  286 
Tomb,  second  or  new,  248,  249,  250-3, 

255,  256,  257,  259,  262,  277,  285,  286 
Townsend,  Miss  Amy,  272  (Note),  290 
Townsend,  Mrs.  Justine  Van  Rensse- 

laer,  263,  289 
Trees,  151,  152,  269 
Trench,  Capt.,  39 
Trenton,  114 
Triplet,  T.,  98 
Triplet,  Wm.,  98 
Trumbull,  Col.  John,  205,  238 
Truro  Parish,  12,  104-108 
Tunnelling  the  banks,  268-9 

Union  Farm,  78,  154 

Valentine's,  Josh.,  110,  111 

Valley  of  Virginia,  or  Shenandoah,  28, 

29,53 

Vallo,  Charles,  172 
Varick,  Col.  Richard,  161 
Vaughan  Mantel,  174-5,  275 


300 


INDEX 


Vaughan,  Samuel,  174,  275 

Vernon,  Admiral,  16,  17,  69,  206,  275 

Versailles,  176 

Virginians,"  Thackeray's  "The,  39, 100 

Visitors,  Board  of,  259 

Volney,  210 

Waccamaw,  Lake,  269 

Wagener,  Dr.  Peter,  93,  99 

Wageners,  208 

Wakefield,  9,  10,  14,  22,  77,  257 

Walker,  Col.  Benjamin,  144 

Wallace,  William,  205,  227 

Walls,  150,  153,  267,  268 

Walnut  Farm,  245 

Warburton  Manor,  4,  18,  92,  122,  243, 

257 
Washington's    Birthday    Anniversary, 

166,  217 

Washington,  evolution  of  name,  7 
Washington,  Ann  Aylette,  285 
Washington,  Anna  Maria,  247,  284 
Washington,  Anne  Fairfax,  see  Anne 

Fairfax 
Washington,    Augustine,    grandson    of 

John  the   Emigrant  and    Father  of 

George,  9,  10,  11,  12,  13,  17,  20,  23, 

24,  26,  35,  54,  85,  105,  281 
Washington,  Augustine,  half-brother  of 

George,  10,  13,  14,  22,  45,  77 
Washington,  Justice  Bushrod,  43,  148, 

158,  210,  226-7,  235,  236,  238,  240-5, 

246,  251,  252,  254,  255,  272,  278,  281- 

282,  285 
Washington,  Mrs.  Bushrod,  see  Anne 

Blackburn 
Washington,    Bushrod,    son    of    Wm. 

Augustine  Washington,  285 
Washington,  Charles,  10,  112,  157,  221, 

227 
Washington   City,   vii,    188,    193,   207, 

209,  218,  247,  248,  255,  261,  274 
Washington,  Corbin,  245 
Washington,  Eleanor  Love,  247,  284 
Washington,  Elisabeth,  10,  13,  37,  41, 

64,  131,  194,  207,  218 
Washington,  Eliza  Selden,  247,  285 
Washington,  Fort,  4,  18,  92,  243 
Washington,     General     George,     look 

under  special  topics  relating  thereto 
Washington,     George,     son     of     John 

Augustine  and  Eleanor,  247,  285 
Washington,    George    Augustine,    157, 

158,  168,  171,  181,  189,  194,  284 
Washington,  Sons  of  George  Augustine, 

235 


Washington,    Mrs.    George  Augustine, 

see  Frances  Bassett 
Washington,  George  Steptoe,  227 
Washington,  Harriott,  159 
Washington  House,  8 
Washington,  Jane  Charlotte,  247,  284 
Washington,  John,  the  Emigrant,  7,  8, 

9,  10,  11,  33,  54,  281 
Washington,  John,  of  Warton,  7 
Washington,   John   Augustine,   brother 

of  George,  10,  13,  43,  44,  55,  58,  112. 

128,  130,  158,  226,  235,  240,  284  __ 
Washington,    John   Augustine,   son   of 

Corbin,  grand  nephew  of  the  General, 

245y-6,  251,  252,  255,  256,  282,  286 
Washington,  Jane  Charlotte  Blackburn, 

wife  of  above,  245-7,  249,  251,  252, 

253,  255,  282,  286 
Washington,    John   Augustine,   son   of 

above,  246-7,  249,  250,  251,  253,  255, 

256,  258,  259,  260,  282,  284,  286 
Washington,  Eleanor  Love  Selden,  246- 

7,284 
Washington,  Lawrence,  rector  of  Pur- 

leigh,  8,  9 
Washington,     Lawrence,     grantee     of 

Sulgrave  Manor,  7,  8 
Washington,     Lawrence,     brother     of 

John  the  Emigrant,  8,  9 
Washington,  Lawrence,  son  of  John  the 

Emigrant,    and    the    grandfather   of 

George,  9,  10,  11,  281 
Washington,  Lawrence,  half-brother  of 

George,  10,  12,  13,  14,  15,  16,  17,  18, 

19,  20,  22,  24,  26,  30,  32,  33,  34,  35, 

36,  47,  54,  68,  231,  238,  266,  275,  281, 

284,  285 
Vashington,   Lawrence,   of   Chotanck, 

210,  227 

Washington,  Lawrence  of  Belmont,  210 
Washington,  Lawrence,  112,  113 
Washington,    Lawrence,    son    of   John 

Augustine  and  Eleanor  Love  Selden, 

Introduction,  239,  247,  249,  253,  255, 

282,  284 

Washington,  Eliza  Fontaine,  247,  284 
Washington,  Lund,  107,  127,  133,  135, 

136,  138,  139,  140,  141,  142,  149,  150, 

157,  158,  194,  208,  270 
Washington,  Mrs.  Lund,  158 
Washington,  Martha,  16,  51,  52,  53,  59, 

60-64,  65,  67,  69,  74,  76,  91,  96,  101, 

106,  110,  111,  115,  116,  121,  122,  125, 

127,  129,  132,  133,  134,  135,  136,  137, 

138,  141,  143,  144,  145,  146,  156,  158, 

162,  166,  170,  173,  175,  183.  187,  189, 


INDEX 


301 


190, 191, 193, 195,  198,  200,  205,  206, 
207,  208,  209,  211,  212,  213,  216,  219, 
223,  225,  226,  229,  230,  232,  233,  234, 
235,  236,  237,  247,  249,  250,  252,  254, 
273,  274,  276,  284,  285,  286 

Washington,  Mary,  10,  12,  13,  26,  37, 
40.  41.  64.  135,  148,  184 

Washington,  Mary  Lee,  245,  251,  252, 
284,286 

Washington,  Mildred,  wife  of  Roger 
Gregory,  10,  11,  281 

Washington,  Mildred,  sister  of  George, 
10,  13 

Washington,  Miss,  of  Mount  Zephyr, 
251 

Washington  mythology,  20 

Washington,  Richard  B.,  249,  253 

Washington,  Robert,  8,  227 

Washington,  Samuel,  brother  of  General 
Washington,  10,  13,  112,  159 

Washington,  Samuel,  nephew  of  Gen- 
eral Washington,  227,  236 

Washington,  Sarah,  35,  285 

Washington,  Mrs.  W.,  91 

Washington,  Mrs.  Warner,  222 

Washington,  Warner,  Jr.,  90 

Washington,  Warren,  110 

Washington,  Whiting,  222 

Washington,  Col.  William,  236 

Washington,  William  Augustine,  227, 
285 

Watson,  170 

Wayne,  General,  229 

Webbs  Ordinary,  112 

Webster,  Noah,  172 

Weedon's,  111 

Weems,  Parson,  21,  92,  173 

Well,  in  cellar,  24 

Welles'  History  and  Geneology  of  the 
Washington  Family,  284,  285 

Wellington,  home  of  Tobias  Lear,  165, 
£27.235 


Wentworth,  General,  16,  17 
West,  Colo.,  and  his  wife,  97 
West  Indies,  16,  22,  32,  33 
Westmoreland  County,  England,  13,  14 
Westmoreland  County,  Virginia,  7,  9, 

13,  14,  20,  21,  22,  77,  240,  245,  268. 

271.  285 
Westover,  42 
Wharf,  267 
Wharf -house,  267 
Whitehaven,  271 
White  House,  New  Kent  County,  52, 

53,  55,  59,  60,  62,  68,  257 
Whiting,  Anthony,  194 
Whiting,  Mrs.  Beverley,  10 
William  and  Mary,  College  of,  61,  240 
Williams,  Captain,  152 
WTilliams,  Mrs.,  12,  17 
Williamsburg,  9,  14,  19,  39,  40,  44,  48, 

51,  52,  53,  54,  58,  61,  62,  77,  91,  104, 

110,  111,  113,  120,  123,  124,  129,  143, 

281 

Will's  Creek,  42 
Wills,    Washington's,    225-6-7-8,   234, 

235,  236,  237,  248,  273 
Wilmington,  114 
Wilson,  Justice  James,  240,  241 
Winchester,  39,  53,  58,  113 
Wister,  Owen,  quoted,  vii 
Wolcott,  Oliver,  202 
Wolcott,  Mrs.,  202 
Wood,  Mr.,  90 
Wood,  James,  54 
Wood,  Mrs.,  54 

Woodlawn,  220,  235,  236,  250,  266 
Woodrow,  Mr.,  90 

York,  114 

York  River,  48,  51,  221 
Yorktown,  143,  144,  155,  204,  240 
Young,  Arthur,  154,  156,  189 
Young,  James,  262 


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